Hansard

Scottish Conservatives are delighted to support the Government’s motion and the Labour amendment.

The Scottish Conservative Party has a proud record of supporting Gaelic communities across Scotland. In 1985, George Younger, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, delivered a speech at the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Gaelic college in Skye, in which he promised specific grants for Gaelic. In the following years, those grants became a reality for the first Gaelic medium units, which are now seen as the catalyst for the subsequent growth in Gaelic medium education. In 1990, the sum provided by his successor, Malcolm Rifkind—and followed up by Michael Forsyth—was crucial for setting up the Gaelic television fund and, therefore, what we know now as BBC Alba. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills was quite right to say how much has been achieved by BBC Alba; it is tremendous and very good news that 10 per cent of Scotland’s population, whether they are Gaelic speaking or not, watch BBC Alba regularly. I know that the cabinet secretary is addressing BBC Alba’s concerns about future funding and the implications of the new BBC Scotland channel.

Like all other parties in the chamber, the Scottish Conservatives have always understood that Gaelic is an intrinsic part of our heritage and social fabric, and it is to be celebrated as such. It is, therefore, extremely important to reassure all Gaelic-speaking people that Parliament gives them its full support. That is something that they greatly appreciate, particularly as it is cross-party support, which has meant that there has been much more substantial progress than might perhaps have been the case otherwise.

As both the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization have pointed out, however, there is still an issue about Gaelic as an endangered language, by their definition. We should not forget that in the 1990s we saw a considerable decline in the Gaelic-speaking population in Scotland. While there has been renewed growth, there are still signs that in some cases there are real challenges ahead—something that we have to take very seriously.

In 2012, I spoke in the debate that followed the launch of the then Scottish Government’s Gaelic language plan, and I have been on education committees on three different occasions when we have debated the future of Gaelic in Scotland. Then, as now, we were indebted to Bòrd na Gàidhlig and many others in the Gaelic community for helping us—especially those of us who are not Gaelic speakers—to understand the aspirations of the indigenous Gaelic communities and the challenges that they face.

In that respect, it is important to mention the progress of Gaelic medium education, the growth and development of which is one of the great success stories of Scottish education over the past 25 years, as far as I am concerned. More than 4,000 children are now taught through the medium of Gaelic throughout Scotland, and the exciting development is that so many of them are in primary school. We warmly welcome the development of new Gaelic schools in Glasgow, building on the success that Glasgow has always shown, and also in Inverness and Edinburgh, not least because the educational research points to the benefits of bilingualism in the intellectual development of young people. Many of the Gaelic schools and others that have Gaelic medium education have shown real progress in relation to attainment. There is a message there.

It is critical to the survival of the language that that growth continues. It is also important to the increasing diversity of Scottish education, in which the Scottish Conservatives firmly believe parents should have maximum choice. I am aware of some of the controversy concerning recent issues on the Isle of Skye, but I think that we can get past that if we handle the issues sensitively.

I note that Bòrd na Gàidhlig has concerns about whether the forthcoming education bill might undermine the statutory provision of Gaelic medium education across our local authorities. I do not share those concerns, but we must certainly ensure that nothing is done, even unwittingly, to undermine the language provision and the number of teachers available to teach it. We do not yet know what will be in the final education bill, but it is important to be mindful of the issues that have been raised.

The fact that the most recent growth in the language has taken place in the nursery and primary sectors is a reflection of the improved facilities, including the digital ones that the cabinet secretary spoke about. However, there is still a huge issue about teacher recruitment in secondary schools. If there is to be a focus in this area, it must be on that. We know about vacancies that have lain open in local authorities where it has not been possible to encourage people to come and teach Gaelic, and there have been some headteacher vacancies, too. I encourage the cabinet secretary to look at that issue as a priority; we would be very supportive of his doing that.

It is also important that we look at teacher recruitment in the context of economic development across Scotland. We have had debates several times recently about some of the most fragile rural communities. A holistic approach must be taken to ensure that those rural communities, many of which have an indigenous Gaelic population, have the support that they require through their own infrastructures. Without those infrastructures, it is extremely difficult to encourage people to go and stay there to bring up their families and give those communities something for the future.

I say that, not because it is simply what I feel, but because of the advice that we have been given by Bòrd na Gàidhlig and some of those indigenous communities. I looked back at the comments that they made to the Education and Culture Committee in 2012 and 2013, providing Parliament with a lot of information about why the focus had to be on those communities, and recognising that perhaps we need to be a bit cleverer about ensuring that the spending in local authorities is diverted to them and that we do not focus too much time on local authorities where there is no demand and there are minimal numbers of Gaelic speakers.

When we have limited resources, which we do—perhaps increasingly limited resources—that focus is very important for us because, if there is anything that we want to do, it is to ensure that the Gaelic community feels that it is being properly supported in the right areas. That is why we support the cabinet secretary’s motion, but also why we want an additional focus on Gaelic-medium education and supporting those indigenous communities.

I move amendment S5M-11788.1, to insert at end:

“, and, to this end, believes that the priority must be on Gaelic medium education and on ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of Gaelic-speaking and Gaelic-qualified teachers available to meet the demand, especially in secondary schools.”