Chamber and committees

I am pleased to have worked with the Deputy First Minister to lodge these amendments, which would change the process by which requests can be considered for access to Gaelic-medium education. I also welcomed the opportunity to work on them with the wider Gaelic community, which has experience of the process, and I am grateful for the advice that it has given me.

Amendment 11 would make key changes to the process that was established by the Education (Scotland) Act 2016. I will go on to explain some of the detail, but, broadly speaking, the amendment would simplify the process for parents and local authorities. It would extend the request process to parties that were not previously included and it would mean that a request could be made not just for Gaelic-medium primary education but for Gaelic-medium early learning.

Although the Gaelic community welcomed the introduction of the process that is in the 2016 act, some concerns have emerged over the years about how that process works in practice. There are two key issues. First, the parental request must be

“accompanied by ... evidence that there is a demand for GMPE from parents of other children who are ... in the same year group”.

That can be hard for parents not only to source but to administer.

Secondly, the assessment is in two stages. The initial assessment proceeds to a full assessment only if there is evidence of demand from at least five children. Parents have found those two stages of the process to be frustrating, and the threshold of five children might not be appropriate for many geographical areas.

My amendment proposes a single-stage assessment process. It would remove the requirement for parents to provide evidence of demand for GME from other children and their parents, and it would therefore be for the local authority to consider the wider demand in their local area.

The process would start with a request to the education authority. I was pleased to support the Scottish Government’s amendment at stage 2 to introduce a process for requests for all-Gaelic schools. Amendment 11 would extend the right to make requests to Comann nam Pàrant and Bòrd na Gàidhlig to bring the process into line with all-Gaelic school request processes. A request would be made to assess the need for Gaelic-medium primary education or Gaelic-medium early learning, and the authority would have to designate a relevant assessment area and “consider” its provision of Gaelic-medium education and the level of demand in that area. The authority would then have to make

“an assessment of the need”

for Gaelic-medium education.

As is the case under the current full assessment process, there would be various considerations for the authority to take into account in the making of a decision—for example, the availability of premises and staffing. The authority would also have to “publicise arrangements” for parents, children and others

“with expertise or an interest”

to make representations, and it would have to take those representations into account when making a decision.

The authority would also have to decide to secure the provision of GMPE and GME early learning in the designated areas unless, having regard to those considerations,

“it would be unreasonable to do so.”

Again, that wording is maintained from the existing full assessment procedure.

Because my amendment 11 now incorporates the changes to the process that are in section 23 of the bill, amendment 12 would completely remove that section, as it would no longer be required.

I am confident that amendment 11 addresses the practical issues that have been raised by parents and the Gaelic community and that its provisions would be an improvement on the current process, which many parents have been frustrated with. I hope and expect that the amendment would be able to contribute to the growth of Gaelic-medium education as a recognised and successful sector in our Scottish education system.

I move amendment 11.

I start by thanking the many individuals and organisations who have engaged with me on the bill and the Deputy First Minister and her officials for their positive engagement.

I joined the Education, Children and Young People Committee last October, so I very much came late to the party in relation to the bill. However, I hope that the amendments that were agreed to, to simplify Gaelic-medium education requests, and some of the other measures in the bill will provide a strong framework that will ultimately help to develop future pathways to learn to speak Gaelic, especially for the young speakers of tomorrow.

After 25 years of the Scottish Parliament, I do not think that we can look back and see the progress that many of us would like to have seen to not only protect but develop the language. There have been some positive developments, but we need to be honest that the language continues to be vulnerable and that it must be nurtured if it is to survive and thrive.

Twenty years after the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, we must take stock of the policy frameworks, including in relation to Gaelic language plans, Gaelic-medium education and initiatives to raise the profile of Gaelic in various sectors, given that they have not achieved the outcomes that we all, including members in previous parliamentary sessions, hoped that they would. I very much associate myself with Michael Marra’s remarks about targets and our ability to judge where progress is needed and where resources need to be focused.

We can look at the example that Wales has set. In saying that, I acknowledge that Wales has been proactive in protecting the Welsh language since the 1930s. Significant progress has been made in Wales to protect and develop the language. That includes the target that the Welsh Parliament has set to have 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, and other targets relating to the use of the language.

The Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Bill also establishes a statutory body—the national Welsh language learning institute—and, in that regard, I very much welcome the amendments to this bill in the name of Willie Rennie that were agreed to in relation to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. I visited many years ago with Liz Smith, and I was hugely impressed by the work that the institution was undertaking. There is also probably no better view outside a lecture theatre—perhaps only here in the capital. I hope that the opportunity in the bill for the institution to move forward as a national centre for Gaelic language education and culture can be secured as soon as possible. I hope that we will see as soon as possible the positive progress on that that the Deputy First Minister has outlined and said that she wants to be made.

I am pleased to have managed to work cross party to take forward amendments on Gaelic-medium education and on simplifying the process for parents and carers to request GME. It is important that local authorities can then accommodate and progress those requests. I fully acknowledge the financial pressures that councils face, but if we are going to save the Gaelic language and improve the uptake of speakers, it is important that that is taken forward.

I very much welcome the positive work that I have been able to undertake with the Government and with campaigners. I thank Wilson McLeod and Dr Gillian Munro, who are here today, for their help and support with those amendments and for their work over many years to support and promote Gaelic-medium education. Future pathways to speak and learn Gaelic are now part of the bill, and I hope that those pathways will succeed where, previously, we have not seen the number of people speaking and learning Gaelic pick up.

I hope that the development of the areas of linguistic significance has the potential to not only stabilise the language but help to create a positive localised environment to give people the confidence to use their language and to further develop structures around speakers. On a visit to Cnoc Soilleir, on South Uist, with the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I saw at first hand how the community hub not only helps to promote and celebrate the community’s Gaelic cultural heritage but provides a multigenerational learning space to save and take forward the language. That provides a great vision for how the public and private sectors can come together to do some of the policy work.

It is clear that, in the coming years, we will continue to face financial pressures. However, I hope that we will have cross-party understanding that resources should rightly focus on making the greatest possible progress on stabilising and growing the language in the areas where it is most widely spoken. A figure of 20 per cent has been put on that in the bill. The areas of linguistic significance that the bill creates will be important in enabling us to see where the language is being developed.

Scottish Conservatives have a long and proud record of supporting the Gaelic language, from the late 1990s, when John Major’s Government made positive reforms, until the present. I place on the record the contributions of a number of my colleagues, both past and present—Liz Smith, Donald Cameron, Ted Brocklebank and Sir Jamie McGrigor—who, over a long time, have made distinguished contributions to supporting the Gaelic language in the Parliament.

On its own, the bill will not turn around the decline in the Gaelic language. However, I hope that its overall policy aims—of increasing the use of Gaelic and furthering opportunities to learn it—will ensure that a vibrant part of Scotland’s cultural landscape will exist for generations to come, and that we will all look back at this point as giving us an opportunity to take the language forward.

Scottish Conservatives will support the motion at decision time.

I have nothing further to add. I press amendment 11.

Amendment 11 agreed to.

Section 22A—All-Gaelic schools: viability of establishment

Would ministers look at reviewing the allocation of credits as part of that? I am thinking about the college sector. I recently met North East Scotland College and discussed the fantastic new net zero campus that it will open. It will have no new credits, so it will have to look towards all its provision. It seems a bit ridiculous that that could impact on other courses in a growing sector, particularly given that the Scottish Government is saying that that is one that we should be doing more to recruit students into.

Thank you, I understand that a ministerial reshuffle is going on, so I wish you all well after this meeting.

I also want to touch on VAT on the independent school sector. That is something that I have raised many times with the cabinet secretary and in various letters to His Majesty’s Treasury. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of that policy’s impact to date, and when did the cabinet secretary last meet representatives from the sector?

Thank you for that answer. I want to return to an issue that I have raised with the Minister for Housing and with other ministers: the number of children who are living in temporary accommodation and the delivery of education for them. Under this Government, 10,360 homeless children are living in temporary accommodation. Here in the capital, there are 3,127 such children. I have consistently raised the issue of children moving schools when they are in temporary accommodation and have asked for a presumption against pupils being moved between schools. I understand that that was meant to be discussed in the ministerial oversight group on homelessness—that is what I was last told, on 4 March. Where is the Government on that policy? Will you update the committee on that? Little progress seems to have been made over a long period.

The committee has heard consistently about the skills gap in our economy and the need to do something different about it, especially in relation to the net zero agenda. Many companies are saying that they want to be part of funding that. Is there a new opportunity—a new funding model that ministers will look to—to increase the number of credits that are available in Scotland directly to fund those skill gaps?

Several issues with that have not really been addressed in recent times. We know from the recent conference that was held in the Highlands and Islands that there is a huge gap in the workforce, which will not be filled overnight.

Good morning to the ministers and their officials. I am trying to think what the collective noun for a group of ministers is—maybe I will go with “gaggle”.

I have a number of wide-ranging questions, the first of which is about rural schools. There has been a decrease of 136 in the number of rural schools. What impact assessment have ministers made of that? The First Minister agreed in April to review the mothballing guidance for schools and nurseries. When will that review be published?

I would be grateful for that. If possible, that measure should be put in place before the start of the new school year.