Use of Gaelic and Scots in education

See also: use of Welsh in education

Below is a brief summary of the Gaelic and Scots languages presence in education since 1999:

In 1999, a study carried out jointly by Stirling University, and the Scottish Council for Research in Education and Leirsinn, the Gaelic research centre, found that the attainment of Gaelic-medium primary pupils at least kept pace with that of their counterparts and matched the 5-14 targets for Gaelic. The report, based on findings in the 34 primaries that offered Gaelic-medium education to Primary 7, shows Gaelic-medium pupils suffered no disadvantage in English and maths at Primary 5 and Primary 7. Results from the Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) tests indicated that Gaelic-medium pupils actually did better in both English and maths but perform less well in science by the end of primary school. 

The study coincided with a national bursary and a training scheme in Scotland for aspiring storytellers using Gaelic, Scots or community languages (including Mandarin and Cantonese, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali), and was set up by the Edinburgh-based Scottish Storytelling Centre in 1999, with the help of funding from the Scottish Arts Council. The scheme will encourage new storytellers who are bilingual, by linking them with experienced storytellers and offering them a study programme. For more information on the Scottish Storytelling Centre, visit www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk

In 2000, in a parliamentary debate held in Gaelic, the Scottish Executive pledged to reinforce the Gaelic language's position in secondary schools, agreeing to include Gaelic-medium education in the Standards in Scotland's Schools' Bill. Councils would be required to furnish annual statements on the extent and nature of provision for Gaelic-medium education. 

The first Gaelic playgroups were established in Scotland in 1982 and in 2000 there were 33. Gaelic medium teaching took place in 59 primaries, and 13 secondaries offer selected subjects. The Scottish Executive's intention in 2000 was to provide more money so that teachers in secondary schools are properly prepared to teach through Gaelic. In an attempt to prevent the Gaelic speaking teacher supply from diminshing, the Executive also provided £200,000 for courses to increase the supply of Gaelic speaking primary teachers, £100,000 to staff the national resource centre for Gaelic teaching materials and £25,000 for Gaelic secondary schools. 

Distance learning aided by modern technology was increasingly seen as a way of delivering a meaningful curriculum in Gaelic to a wide range of schools.

Figures from the 2001 census showed that the number of Scotland's Gaelic speakers had fallen below 60,000 for the first time, a 15% decline in a decade. If it falls below 50,000, Gaelic will be considered officially dead. In 2002, despite the above Gaelic initiatives in Scotland, the ministerial advisory group on Gaelic underlined that they were creating only 250 new speakers a year to replace the 1,500 who die. In 2002, only 2,000 children were undertaking Gaelic-medium education in primaries and secondaries. In its report A Fresh Start for Gaelic, the group called on the minister for Gaelic to launch an emergency teacher training and recruitment programme. An average 1,075 three-year-olds were joining Gaelic-medium nursery classes but the annual primary intake then fell to 292 and the secondary intake was 104. 

A study in 2002 backed up the findings of the 1999 Stirling University study, financed by the Executive and led by Professor Richard Johnstone of Stirling University, demonstrated that "based on international research in this area, what we think is happening is that the children are not just becoming fluent in two languages, they are also learning to read and write - they are becoming literate - in both. This seems to develop an underlying competence in language itself, which drives forward their subsequent learning and use of them."

In 2002 a scheme was piloted among Doric speakers in northeast Scotland in which teachers will no longer correct pupils who use Scots dialect in place of standard English. Scots is not officially recognised as a language in the same way as Gaelic is. As a dialect, it is not eligible for official funding under the European Charter for Regional Languages. However, there is a cross-party Scots language group within the Scottish Parliament.

In May 2004 Scottish ministers announced that the Government would help fund a £4 million all-Gaelic secondary school in Glasgow. The school is meant to act as a hub to ensure specialist subject teaching is available throughout Scotland in a "virtual Gaelic-medium secondary network". The same year saw the Executive make £14.4 million available in 2004/05 for Gaelic education, broadcasting and funding for Gaelic organisations.

In 2005 the Executive launched an action group to address the need for more teachers in Gaelic medium education. The group will consider current systems for Gaelic medium teacher training, ways to promote Gaelic teacher recruitment and innovative routes into Gaelic medium teaching. This was also backed up by the Gaelic Language Act which recognises Gaelic as an official language of Scotland, and requires the creation of a national plan to provide strategic direction for the development of the Gaelic language.

In Wales, the Assembly set aside £2 million for a pilot scheme, part of its Iaith Pawb strategy to increase the number of Welsh speakers, offering every primary and secondary teacher a three-month career break to learn the "language of heaven". However, the Scottish Executive said it had no intention of following the Welsh move.

In 2006, the Scottish Executive announced the launch of a Scots language book for children: Katie's Moose, a colourful board book of rhyme, illustrations and Scots words. The book is part of the Itchy Coo project, backed by £150,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which has visited around 500 schools and libraries, working with hundreds of teachers and thousands of children to promote the Scots language.

In July 2007, the TES published a warning from supporters of Scots as it was not specifically named as a language of Scotland in A Curriculum for Excellence. This means teachers do not recieve official support for teaching Scots, which supporters claim can improve children's English literacy too by tasking pupils with thinking about language more analytically. Pupils regarded as reluctant readers had been shown to have loads of enthusiasm for reading books in Scots.

In 2007, the British Council Scotland collaborated with Edinburgh: Unesco City of Literature and commissioned new poetry in Gaelic, Scots and English to celebrate the diversity of language in Scotland. The poems also have additional educational packs for teachers across the UK to use. Three of the poems are also available in audio format, read by the authors, along with other examples of their work. For more information, visit www.britishcouncil.org/scotland-arts-and-culture-poets.htm