Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, January 17, 2019

Official Report 671KB pdf

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Scottish Government Reports

The next item on the agenda is consideration of the biannual reports from the Scottish Government on a range of European Union issues. Do members have any views or comments on the reports?

Tumbleweed blows. [Laughter.]

There was something—I am just trying to find it.

We are on the record.

I have a comment about Ivan McKee’s letter. At the start of the second page, he writes:

“At the end of 2017, we were notified that the value of the programmes had been reduced by €22 million as a result of expenditure targets for 2017 not being met.”

The rest of the paragraph follows the same theme. Do we want to ask for a bit more detail on that?

Yes, we could ask for more detail on that. I was particularly interested in the reduction in the number of unemployed young people in the south-west of Scotland, which I represent.

Ivan McKee talks about that in the same paragraph. That is one of the programmes on which expenditure has gone down. That is his explanation for it; on other programmes, the expenditure targets have not been met. Could we ask him about the reasons for those targets not being met?

Okay.

In North Ayrshire, there has been a reduction in youth unemployment from 1,900 to 1,200. I got the specific details from the Scottish Parliament information centre, because, when I asked the question in the chamber, the minister gave me only percentage figures, as opposed to numbers of real people. Can we ask how much of that reduction is due to the impact of European structural funds?

We can write to the minister to ask that question.

We might also wish to ask for an update on the one-plus-two languages policy, in the light of the interesting trends in the uptake of language courses across a range of qualifications. Given the downward trend on that, it would be useful to ask more questions there.

Finally, in relation to the update on horizon 2020, it would be useful to obtain further information on what scenario planning the Scottish Government has done as regards access to horizon 2020 funds post 2020.

On the matter of languages, it is interesting that there has been a significant increase in take-up between 2017 and 2018 at Scottish credit and qualifications framework level 3—there has been a 23 per cent increase—but, at level 4, there has been a 13.6 per cent decrease. In addition, there have been smaller decreases at levels 5, 6 and 7. The same is true of the number of passes. Could we ask why there has been such a dramatic increase at level 3 and such a decrease at level 4? What has been done to impact on those figures?

That is a good point.

There are two major factors that will affect language take-up. The first is the availability of a particular subject choice in the pupil’s educational environment. I would be keen to learn from the Government what the trends have been in relation to the number of languages that are available to pupils. The second factor is the availability of language teachers. I do not see any data in the report on trends in the number of teachers for each language that the Government wants to promote. That additional information would enable us to see whether those are additional factors in the take-up of languages. If the Government is keen to meet those commitments, surely that needs to be followed through with the provision of appropriate language choices and adequate teacher numbers.

We can ask about those specific points in the letter.

Some of the information that Jamie Greene has cited as not being here is information that the Education and Skills Committee has begun to gather for a piece of work that it will do this year on subject choice in school. Languages are one of the core areas where there are issues with subject choice. Just as much of the information that the Education and Skills Committee has begun gathering—in some areas, it might have finished gathering it—would be useful for this committee, some of the data that is included in the Scottish Government’s report would be of use to the Education and Skills Committee. Therefore, it would be helpful if we could flag up that section of the report to that committee ahead of the work that it is about to begin.

I am sure that the clerks can do that.

From a cultural and European perspective—although the issue goes wider than Europe—there is an issue about which languages are taught. I am talking about the breadth of language provision. In primary schools, L2 is hugely weighted in favour of French, and Spanish is dominant at L3. So many languages that one would expect to be included are not, including languages that are really important for commerce. Obvious examples are Russian and Arabic, and I would even mention Hindi.

We should ask the Scottish Government—without stepping on the toes of the Education and Skills Committee—what steps it is taking to expand the number and choice of languages that are taught. Especially if we are going to be outside the European Union, languages such as Russian, Arabic and Hindi will be particularly important in the years ahead.

Okay. Thank you for that. Annabelle Ewing is next.

Erasmus plays a role here, and it has a wider role to play. It would be helpful if we sought further clarity on Erasmus vis-à-vis the one-plus-two language policy and how it will play a role in what is anticipated in the wider context of Brexit and whether there is a deal or no deal. Erasmus is a fantastic scheme and everybody is worried about what is going to happen. In our discussions with the United Kingdom permanent representation to the European Union—UKRep—on our visit to Brussels, we heard about certain, perhaps unhelpful suggestions about the way in which the UK Government is going to proceed, given its focus and priorities, which may change. There are a number of issues there that we would want to look at.

Yes. That is very important. Of course, the committee conducted an extensive inquiry into the future of Erasmus and we forwarded our report to ministers. As has been said, a large amount of language teaching is funded by Erasmus. We also need to find out what will happen to horizon 2020 in the event of there being no deal. I do not imagine that the Scottish Government has the answer to that, but we should raise our concerns about it.

Alexander, do you want to comment?

We heard yesterday that contingencies are in place and that the Scottish Government is doing specific things. Two areas—Erasmus and horizon 2020—have been identified that we should focus on to see exactly where we are and what is in place to ensure that we can manage the situation, depending on what happens.

Thank you. Are members content to write to the minister on all those points?

Members indicated agreement.

We move into private session.

11:22 Meeting continued in private until 11:33.