Official Report 535KB pdf
Item 4 is consideration of reports from the Scottish Government. Members have a pretty substantial paper that includes updates on horizon 2020 and foreign language learning as well as our usual update on the transposition of EU directives. Are there any questions, comments or requests for clarification?
I am not sure how well we are doing on the language scheme or how many more schools—if any—have joined. I am trying to get a practical hold on whether we have increased our language bank and whether other schools have joined in.
We were going to monitor secondary schools to see whether, once the children have graduated from primary school and moved on to secondary, those languages are available to them to complement what they have previously learned. We do not have detailed information on that, but perhaps we could get it at some stage.
There is an implementation process paper attached. A section of the letter from Alasdair Allan states:
“Since my previous update, implementation of the 1+2 policy has gathered pace”.
We need to know what that pace has been.
Yes, please.
We can ask for that information.
My experience on several cross-party groups suggests that the one-plus-two language policy is not working very well at all. Dr Allan highlights in the update that
“Michael Russell MSP has agreed to sponsor a Parliamentary Reception on Thursday 24 September”.
It will be important for some of our cross-party groups to get involved in that, alongside MSPs. It concerns me that we are not punching above our weight.
We need some detail on that.
Absolutely.
On the same point, page 4 of the update states:
“Local Authorities have ... been asked to provide a strategic update to help build a picture of how provision is developing in Scottish schools since their strategies were submitted in 2014”.
It might be an idea to ask the Scottish Government to give the committee an update when those submissions have come in.
There are some positives in Dr Allan’s update. The vast increase in the number of language assistants seems to be a positive.
That area was a concern, because numbers had dropped greatly. A few weeks ago, we received feedback from the British Council that it has managed to push the numbers up, too.
There are a number of positives in the update, but we need clarification on how well the Government is doing in some areas.
We will move on—very swiftly; well done everyone—to a paper—
Convener, I want to come back in with one little point that I meant to raise on the languages update.
Yes, of course.
The update states:
“Interest in the LA programme continues to grow: provisional numbers for the coming academic year are an increase of 100%”.
Can we get the actual figure? An increase from one to two would be an increase of 100 per cent, if you know what I mean. It would be quite interesting to see that figure.
We visited many more projects than just one—
I know.
That is part of the detail that we should ask for.
Okay.