- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 25 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council on developing a strategic approach for the provision of tuition in languages to students and, if so, what the outcome has been.
Answer
There has been no such discussion between the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.
Ministers are precluded from directing SHEFC in its allocation of funding to institutions for specific courses.
Last year, the council awarded a grant of £675,000 to the University of Stirling to establish the SCOTLANG Project. This is a three-year project which is aimed at co-ordinating and enhancing research on the use, learning and teaching of modern foreign languages in Scotland. The project is based at the Centre for Information in Language Teaching and Research (CILT) in the Institute for Education at the University of Stirling.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Scottish Further Education Funding Council on developing a strategic approach for the provision of tuition in IT skills to students and, if so, what has been the outcome.
Answer
I have asked the Scottish Further Education Funding Council to encourage and support the FE sector in developing a highly trained, flexible and IT literate workforce, familiar with and skilled in the use of this new technology, which will meet the future requirements of the Scottish economy.
There have been discussions between Scottish Executive and Funding Council officials on these matters, and the Funding Council has just completed a major public consultation exercise on the development of a comprehensive information and communication technology strategy.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Scottish Further Education Funding Council on developing a strategic approach for the provision of tuition in languages to students and, if so, what has been the outcome.
Answer
No such discussions have been held.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 18 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what representation it will have on the UK delegation to the Ministerial Conference on the knowledge and information society in Lisbon on 10-11 April 2000.
Answer
As at all EU events, Scotland will be represented through the UK delegation, however it is constituted.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 18 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-1385 by Sarah Boyack on 16 March 2000, what progress has been made with the survey into the condition of local roads being carried out by the Society of Chief Officers of Transport of Scotland.
Answer
The progress of the survey referred to is a matter for the Society and the local authorities concerned.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering the facilitation in Scotland of "learning partnerships between schools, training centres, firms and research facilities for their mutual benefit", as identified as a goal in the Presidency Conclusions from the Lisbon EU Council Meeting.
Answer
The Education for Work and Enterprise agenda, promoted by the Scottish Executive, supports a wide range of enterprise education activities aimed at developing links between schools and the world of work which are similar to those identified in the Presidency Conclusions. The strategic aims of the agenda are being taken forward by the National Centre: Education for Work and Enterprise at the University of Strathclyde. The Centre will shortly publish a National Strategy with the aim of raising the profile of education for work at local and national level.
The Scottish Executive Education Department and IBM are currently co-operating over the development of SCOTBEE, Scottish Business Education Exchange, a new project to use ICT to support links between teachers and the world of work. The Scottish Executive is also currently funding two ICT learning centres, one in Bellshill North Lanarkshire and one in Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Both are examples of education working in partnership with the local community and industries.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 13 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in working with "key business influencers to increase boardroom recognition of the strategic challenges of e-commerce" and whether an action plan has been devised to tackle these challenges as identified as a commitment in the Cabinet Office Report,
[email protected].
Answer
The Scottish Executive will ensure that Scottish speakers and events will feature in the speaker platform strategy which is being put together by DTI.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to monitor how much of its correspondence and publication and distribution of documents is carried out electronically (a) internally and (b) to other bodies and individuals.
Answer
Internal correspondence, publication and distribution of documents is normally carried out electronically, via e-mail, shared file facilities and the Executive's Intranet. By the summer, letters sent to Ministers, where official advice is sought, should be handled as electronic images within the Executive. Where external correspondents send e-mail, replies from officials of the Executive are normally sent electronically. Many members of the public do not have (or do not supply) e-mail addresses when corresponding with the Executive, and this constrains our ability to respond electronically. All Scottish Executive publications are routinely made available on the website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/recent.asp. Levels of readership of the Internet and the Intranet websites are regularly measured.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the ratio is of students to computers in primary schools in each local authority area.
Answer
The Annual Survey of Information and Communications Technology, carried out across a sample of Scottish schools in October 1999, showed that the pupil:computer ratio in primary schools was 13:1. The ratio of pupils to modern computers was 23:1. A modern computer is defined as being less than four years old. Figures for each local authority area will be available when the results of the 1999 School Census are published. The situation is changing rapidly as the National Grid for Learning rolls out.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 April 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the ratio is of students to computers in secondary schools in each local authority area.
Answer
The Annual Survey of Information and Communications Technology, carried out across a sample of Scottish schools in October 1999, showed that the pupil:computer ratio in secondary schools was 5:1. The ratio of pupils to modern computers was 8:1. A modern computer is defined as being less than four years old. Figures for each local authority area will be available when the results of the 1999 School Census are published.
