Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills submission of 23 June 2021
PE1867/A - Establish a new national qualification for British Sign Language (BSL)
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the aforenamed petition.
The Scottish Government fully recognises the importance of young people learning languages. Our ‘1+2 approach’ to improve language learning in schools aims to ensure that pupils have the opportunity to learn two additional languages from P1 to S3. The first additional language (the ‘L2’) should be taught from P1 onwards, and a second additional language (the ‘L3’) should be taught no later than from P5 onwards.
For a language to be eligible as an L2, Education Scotland advises that it “must be a language which children can continue to study at secondary school to the level of a National Qualification”. There are currently eight languages that meet this criteria: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Gaelic (for learners), Urdu, Mandarin and Cantonese.
The introduction of new qualifications is a matter for the SQA. In order to establish a new National Qualification, they would first need to consider a number of factors. This can include a minimum number of learners, evidence of demand, and sufficient availability of GTCS-registered teachers of the subject, among others. The SQA would also need to consider the costs and resources required in order to develop the necessary framework of progression, as well as the qualifications themselves.
There are no National Qualifications in place that allow BSL to be taught in the same way as the languages previously mentioned, or for pupils to validate their learning to the same level, which is why it cannot be offered as an L2 by schools at this time. Developing an award for BSL at SCQF level 2, in addition to the existing awards at levels 3-8, would not be sufficient to change this situation.
The current range of awards the SQA offer are relevant qualifications for schools that wish to offer BSL as an L3. The awards have been designed for both hearing and deaf learners to develop their language skills, which can benefit learners in improving their language fluency and understanding of the Sign Language Community.