Editing Classics (section)

===20th century to present===
During the 20th century, the study of classics became less common. In England, for instance, [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] universities stopped requiring students to have qualifications in Greek in 1920,<ref name="Stray 1996 83"/> and in Latin at the end of the 1950s.<ref name="Stray 1996 85">{{harvnb|Stray|1996|p=85}}</ref> When the [[National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)|National Curriculum]] was introduced in England, [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]] in 1988, it did not mention the classics.<ref name="Stray 1996 85"/> By 2003, only about 10% of [[State school|state schools]] in Britain offered any classical subjects to their students at all.<ref>{{harvnb|Cook|2003}}</ref> In 2016, [[AQA]], the largest exam board for [[A-Levels]] and [[GCSE]]s in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, announced that it would be scrapping A-Level subjects in [[Classical antiquity|Classical Civilisation]], [[Archaeology]], and [[Art history|Art History]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/17/scrapping-archeology-classics-a-levels-barbaric-tony-robinson/| title=Scrapping of archaeology and classics A-levels criticized as 'barbaric act'| author=Sally Weale| newspaper=The Guardian| date=2016-10-17| access-date=2018-08-02}}</ref> This left just one out of five exam boards in England which still offered Classical Civilisation as a subject. The decision was immediately denounced by archaeologists and historians, with [[Natalie Haynes]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' stating that the loss of the A-Level would deprive state school students, 93% of all students, the opportunity to study classics while making it once again the exclusive purview of wealthy private-school students.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/19/aqa-classics-classical-civilisation-a-level-exam-archaeology| title=Ditching classics at A-level is little short of a tragedy| author=Natalie Haynes| newspaper=The Guardian| date=2016-10-19| access-date=2018-08-02}}</ref>

However, the study of classics has not declined as fast elsewhere in Europe. In 2009, a review of ''Meeting the Challenge'', a collection of conference papers about the teaching of Latin in Europe, noted that though there is opposition to the teaching of Latin in Italy, it is nonetheless still compulsory in most secondary schools.<ref>{{harvnb|Balbo|2009}}</ref> The same may also be said in the case of [[France]] or [[Greece]]. Indeed, [[Ancient Greek literature|Ancient Greek]] is one of the compulsory subjects in Greek [[secondary education]], whereas in France, Latin is one of the optional subjects that can be chosen in a majority of [[Middle school|middle schools]] and [[Secondary school|high schools]]. [[Ancient Greek]] is also still being taught, but not as much as [[Latin]].