Chamber and committees

I will press you on that. Just to be clear, if the bill is passed, will Education Scotland be producing materials for each dialect, or is it the expectation that the individual classroom teacher will produce the materials with which to teach?

I would not be surprised if the committee would appreciate having the data that you just talked about, as well as links to those resources.

I am going to ask Donald Macleod a question, but Bruce Eunson will want to stand ready, because he might want to come back in.

Earlier, Seonaidh Charity talked about the difficulties with training and recruiting Gaelic teachers and enabling Gaelic teachers to teach their specialism. Given something that you said earlier, Donald, do you have any ideas around how we train teachers to deliver teaching in their dialect of Scots, and can you give an indication of where we might be offering places for that, and, indeed, whether there is a demand for that from teachers?

I understand. My colleagues might wish to come in on that, but I would like to ask a further question. Would you accept, then, that “the Scots language” as envisaged by the bill is a catch-all term for various dialects, which will require to be promoted as individual dialects in individual areas?

Good morning, panel. I will come to Bruce Eunson first. I would like to move to part 2 of the bill, which is on Scots. I am interested in how Scots, in particular, can be supported in education. Education Scotland’s submission notes that we need a

“more detailed description of what Scots is”.

Slightly unhelpfully, in my view, the bill defines “Scots language” as “the Scots language”. In your view, what definition of the Scots language will professionals need to use? If we accept that it is something of an all-encompassing term that incorporates various dialects—for example, Doric—is there an accepted definition of which dialects are included, such that a teacher can be confident that they are teaching Scots?

That would do. [Laughter.]

When they are training in Scots, what are they training in? Are they training in Doric Scots, Orkney Scots and so on? How does that work?

Forgive me—I guess that I had misunderstood what you said earlier. I had thought that we were training teachers to teach the Scots language, but that is not what the OU is doing, is it? Perhaps you could confirm that when you respond to my next question, if you would. The Scottish Government is paying for the course that you are providing. For how long is that funding guaranteed, and how many students will it put through the course?

I have a question for Lydia Rohmer, based on what Dr Munro has just said. Lydia, you say in your submission:

“it would be better to have two separate Bills—one for Scots and one for Gaelic. Having both together ... risks muddying the waters and causing confusion.”

You have heard how passionately Dr Munro has just spoken about the Gaelic side of the bill. Will you elaborate on what you would like to happen in terms of splitting the bill and whether it would be good for the committee to take that idea on board?

Good morning. Douglas Ansdell, I want to pick up on what you said in your conclusion about people looking forward to good progress being delivered on the ambitions. If the bill is enacted, how will that progress be measured for Gaelic and Scots, and when does that measurement take place?

I see. Thank you.