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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 20 December 2024
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Displaying 751 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

I will say it again. What is your opinion on the approach that the bill takes towards providing ministers with the range of powers, which they might believe that they need, to create duties on public bodies in relation to the delivery of Gaelic and Scots?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

That is perfectly understandable. Thanks very much to all three of you for that.

On the back of that, a wee bit of controversy is maybe creeping in here. This has been discussed already. Should local authorities be able not have to make provision in areas where communities show little interest in Gaelic and Scots?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

That is very helpful. What all three of you have said shows that you are aware of what you and the organisations have been doing over time and the success that that has had, and that it is about working out from that where you go next.

The most important thing that you have said is that it is not really based around talking at people and communities, but talking with them and bringing them together. That is useful.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

My question is for all three witnesses, but I will address it to James Wylie first. Are you content with the approach that the bill takes towards providing ministers with the range of powers to create duties on public bodies in relation to the delivery of Gaelic and Scots?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

I will come back to that in a wee bit—thanks very much for that.

Joanna Peteranna, do you have any thoughts on that?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 15 May 2024

Bill Kidd

I suppose that you are all the best people to talk about the lessons from the experience of Gaelic development since 2005 and 2006. How can the lessons from developing Gaelic across the country, particularly in areas where it is particularly strong, be used to help to guarantee the future development of Gaelic? Perhaps those lessons could be used for the Scots language, too. How will you use those lessons? You must have found that certain things work better than others. What do you use to get people interested and maintain the development?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 May 2024

Bill Kidd

Parents will look for the best provision of education for their children as they go forward and, unlike their children, they might even frequently look forward to exams. How is the qualifications side of things being developed? As you said, we need to get the numbers of teachers in the first place, then the school time and all that sort of stuff, and then exams have to take place. Is that all working cohesively just now, or is there a problem?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 May 2024

Bill Kidd

So, we are talking about the development of self-confidence, which can run throughout families and communities, should the opportunity present itself or be presented to them.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 May 2024

Bill Kidd

There are challenges in ensuring that teachers in different areas of Scotland have the resources and the skills to support education in different dialects, such as Lallans, Doric and so on. We are looking at people having the opportunity to use their acquired language to the best advantage of the children who are being taught. Are there challenges for teachers in learning in that respect? They cannot necessarily learn from a person who is 100 miles down the road.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 May 2024

Bill Kidd

As I said during our discussion with the first panel—I believe that you were in the public gallery at the time—the advantage of learning or developing language in school is that it frequently encourages an interest in the learning of language. Therefore, children might go on to be interested in learning Italian or German or whatever, too, and perhaps also Gaelic, if they have not had that opportunity before. Do you think that the development of such an acquired skill needs to be encouraged anyway?