First modern foreign languages, now history. Just as ministers are about to embark on a shake-up of the school curriculum to place more emphasis on "Britishness" in history lessons, more bad news comes their way.
Seven out of 10 schoolchildren have given up studying history by the time they are 14, according to Paul Armitage, history adviser for the education standards watchdog Ofsted, who spoke at a conference yesterday.
Mr Armitage gave the example of seven and eight-year-old children who were given three topics to study in the school year: the Romans, the second world war and ancient Egypt. They went from one to another, leaving them with little understanding of the chronology of historical events.
History is not alone. Geography - the subject ministers think will be crucial in teaching pupils about climate change - is also losing popularity. The number of 14 to 16-year-olds studying the subject for their GCSE fell by 3,287 last year.
And then there's modern foreign language.
This year's GCSE results must have shocked the education secretary, Alan Johnson. The number of candidates studying French fell by 13.2% compared with last year, while those teenagers opting for German fell by 14.2%.
But with losers come winners and while history, geography and modern languages are haemorrhaging pupils, media studies, psychology and religion are gaining popularity.
However this latest warning must be making ministers wonder if the history lessons on offer are relevant to youngsters and whether their proposed tweaks can keep teens from ditching the subject.