Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee, 23 Apr 2008

Meeting date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Official Report 267KB pdf

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Panjabi Language Examination

Agenda item 2 is on the provision of a Panjabi language examination in Scottish schools. The committee received a letter on the matter from the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Glasgow.

Members have in front of them a paper that the clerks prepared. You will remember that at an earlier committee meeting we agreed to write to the Scottish Qualifications Authority to seek its comments. We have now received a response and I am keen to learn what members' view are on how we should progress the matter.

The clerk's briefing paper states:

"The costs of running the examinations are significant".

How much are they, and did Glasgow City Council pay for them?

No. The Scottish Executive did so. It made the awards.

So the costs were covered by the three-year funding that was available. How much was that?

It was £75,000 over three years. The clerks are not entirely sure whether the Scottish Executive paid the whole amount or whether Glasgow City Council provided part funding.

Thank you.

The SQA's response refers to

"the possible inclusion of Panjabi and other ethnic minority languages within the SQA diet"

and says that it is reviewing that possibility. The SQA expects to complete the review by the end of June, but do we have any hint as to whether it will include Panjabi in the diet?

The issue is that the SQA is not going to do it, which is why the Sikh temple is exercised. Panjabi may well be included in future diets, but there will certainly be a gap when students will not be able to get qualifications for a period. It may take one or two years for the SQA to address the matter.

We have to strike a balance between what is a policy issue and what is generally an issue for the local MSP or MSPs to take up with the minister directly, as to whether the Government would provide gap funding. The SQA response is encouraging about the provision of Panjabi for future years—the convener is correct about that—but Shawlands is concerned about the coming academic year. I do not think that the committee should go down the route of making funding requests of the Government, but if we wish to take the matter further it is open to us to ask the minister about the Government's position. I do not know what constituency Shawlands academy is in, or whether the local MSPs have been engaged with the Government. It is a difficult issue. I am sure that schools in my constituency would write to the committee if they knew that it was able to take up an issue. Notwithstanding the policy and the national significance of this case, it is a difficult one to balance. I would certainly be happy if the committee wrote to the minister asking what the Government policy is. Given the fact that the examination was previously funded by the Government, it was considered at one time that funding was merited. We can find out what is the position of the new Government.

We could explore this a bit further by informing the Sikh temple of the response and also by asking the SQA to tell us about the outcomes of its review in June.

On Jeremy Purvis's point about allowing the local MSP to take up the matter, I wonder if the young people come from a wider area than the Shawlands catchment area and therefore that more than one MSP may be involved.

The SQA response says that there has been a low take-up of the units that it provides. I suspect that that is probably because people were doing the other exam and therefore did not need to take an additional unit. I wonder whether we will now see a corresponding increase in the take-up of the SQA units. Perhaps that is one way to address the matter. Clearly, there has been a recognition that the exam is of value. I wonder why the SQA is not looking to develop provision more quickly than it suggests in its response.

I agree with Jeremy Purvis's suggestion that we should write to the minister and ask what is her intention regarding the matter. We should also do what Rob Gibson suggested, and ask the SQA to come back to us after June to let us know the results of its review.

There seems to be consensus around the action that the committee will take. The first suggestion is that we write to the minister and ask for her views on the matter. We will also write to the SQA and ask it to give us an indication of its findings once its review has concluded in June. In addition, we will ask the SQA why it is unlikely that the qualification diet will consider this matter earlier rather than later. We will write to the Sikh temple informing it of the action of the committee but also to encourage it to contact the MSPs of the young people who are engaged in this educational endeavour at the temple.

That concludes this meeting of the committee.

Meeting closed at 12:40.