Official Report 255KB pdf
Foreign Languages Policy (PE1022)
I reconvene the meeting. Agenda item 2 is consideration of PE1022, on foreign language learning. The clerks circulated a briefing paper on the petition in advance of the meeting for members' consideration. Members will note that there is a recommendation in the paper to write to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning seeking her views on the petitioner's proposals. Do members want to follow that recommendation or take another of the courses of action that the paper highlights?
It is sensible to write to the cabinet secretary. Because of its specific nature, it is difficult to know what to do with the petition. We must also take into account our work programme. However, the recently published statistics on the uptake of modern languages give us cause for concern and make it clear that there is a problem that we need to address. I would welcome the cabinet secretary's view on whether the petitioner's suggested review is possible.
I agree that we should write to the cabinet secretary. Given the recent statistics, we should keep a watching brief on the issue. I appreciate that, as the briefing paper indicates, this committee and its predecessor committees have not focused on particular areas of the curriculum, so it would be difficult to start going in that direction. However, it is right for us to be concerned about particular areas, for example modern languages, and probably science and maths. I would be interested to hear what the cabinet secretary has to say. I agree with Ken Macintosh's comments in that regard.
In that case, we will write to the cabinet secretary and await a response. We will also notify the petitioner of our course of action on the petition.
Meeting closed at 12:27.