During First Minister’s Question Time, Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser pressed Alex Salmond on the SNP’s poor record on foreign language education in Scottish schools.
The Conservative MSP highlighted the dramatic fall in foreign language assistants as indicative of a failing record on foreign language education.
Between 2007/8 and 2012 the number of foreign language assistants decreased by 73.4% (259-69).
Chamber exchange:
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to increase the uptake of foreign languages in secondary schools. (S4F-01339)
The First Minister (Alex Salmond): We have a good policy to improve the teaching of languages in schools. It has been successful in stabilising the number of foreign language highers being taken and in ending the years of decline, during which the numbers fell by 17 per cent between 1992 and 2006-07. The most recent figures show 7,755 entries for language highers—that is up 1.3 per cent on 2006-07.
We recognise that languages are a crucial skill for our young people and our economy. That is why, in this year alone, we are investing £4 million in the one-plus-two model, under which every child will learn two languages, starting in primary school.
Murdo Fraser: The First Minister did not mention that, since 2008, there has been a 28 per cent decline in the number of those taking a modern language at standard grade level. That alarming decline is causing concern both for educationists and for the business community. We know that foreign language assistants are key to language teaching, so why has the First Minister’s Government presided over a 73 per cent drop in their number between 2007 and 2012? What will he do to restore the numbers to where they were when he took office?
Commenting outside the chamber Murdo Fraser MSP said:
“The Scottish Government’s ambitious 1+ 2 language initiative will remain simply a pipe dream unless the correct support structures are in place, and that means readdressing the dire shortage of foreign language assistants.
“Mr Salmond may claim that entries to Foreign Language Higher exams remain steady but the number of standard grade entrants has decreased since he came to power.
“There must be a happy blend between meeting Scotland’s needs in a global economy and learning a language because of its intrinsic value.
“Last November, a report from Language Rich Europe, outlined the difficulties Scotland will face in a global economy if the imbalance of foreign language specialists is not reversed.
“The Scottish Government must recommit time and resources to language learning and until they do so Scottish pupils will continue to endure a less rounded education.”