Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee, 05 Mar 2008

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Official Report 321KB pdf

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Panjabi Language Examination

The second and final item on our agenda is to consider correspondence that was sent to me, as the committee convener, by the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Glasgow with regard to the assessment of Panjabi language learning. It is not currently possible for students in Scotland to sit an examination in Panjabi as the funding that has enabled such examinations to take place for the past three years is no longer available.

Members will see from the briefing paper that we are asked to consider whether the committee should write to the SQA to seek its comments on the possible inclusion of Panjabi and other minority ethnic languages in the examination diet. I seek members' views on the matter.

I am happy for us to enter into dialogue on the matter because it is clear that many more languages are becoming prevalent. We need to get some sort of benchmark for the examination aspect.

In that case, we will write to the SQA. In light of our consideration of foreign languages a few weeks ago, and given the point that the deputy convener has just made about considering all languages, we could consider this issue again when we consider the other petition that was passed to the committee. However, we will write to the SQA about Panjabi language learning because that is what the organisation in question wants us to do.

Meeting closed at 13:02.