The Scotsman Bulletin Monday February 03 2025 #Education
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday.
00:05Yes, we're in February and we've got a busy news agenda to talk about.
00:09I'm here with education correspondent Callum Ross.
00:12Callum, we'll get to talking about the latest on the education beat shortly.
00:17But firstly, here's the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:21We led on Institute for Fiscal Studies, putting out some new papers
00:27confirming an extra $1.5 billion overall in spending for the NHS
00:33as a result of the way finances and the mix of debt etc. has played out.
00:40Obviously good news that there will be even more spending power
00:44for the Scottish Government on health.
00:46The question mark is over whether they use it effectively
00:49and that's something that particularly the Scottish Tories are calling on
00:53to make sure that that happens and the money doesn't at all go to waste.
00:58We've also launched the latest part in the 44th Scotland Street series
01:04by Alexander McCall Smith.
01:06It returns today.
01:07We will be running a part of that serial every day.
01:11You can read it either in the print pages of the Scotsman
01:14or online at scotsman.com.
01:17It's a terrific product and great to see a new story
01:22in the Scotsman's pages over the coming days.
01:25Callum, there's also a report from yourself in today's paper.
01:30You can also read that at scotsman.com.
01:32It's about languages, which is maybe something that we don't think about
01:36that often these days, it feels, as part of the curriculum.
01:39And there's some really interesting insights about what's being taught
01:43and in what numbers in Scottish schools.
01:46That's right, Dale.
01:47It's a new report by the British Council carried out based on some work
01:51carried out by experts at Queen's University in Belfast.
01:55It's out today.
01:56It's called Language Trends Scotland.
01:58It's kind of the first of its kind and it does, as the name suggests,
02:02reveal some interesting trends.
02:05I mean, we do know there has been concern in recent years,
02:09as you kind of touched on there, about declining interest in languages
02:15in schools and universities.
02:17You'll remember the controversy, I think it was at the end of 2023,
02:21when Aberdeen University suggested it might scrap all its languages degrees
02:27just because of low student numbers and kind of high numbers of staff.
02:32I think in the end, they decided to keep the joint degrees,
02:36but there were kind of cutbacks there, which is also to do with saving money.
02:43This new report highlights kind of two elements, really.
02:47It looks at the trends in terms of SQA data and it also surveys schools.
02:54In terms of the SQA data, I mean, it does kind of confirm that decline.
03:00If you look at French, German, and Spanish combined altogether,
03:05at higher level, the number of entries is down 27% in the last 10 years
03:11and they're down by 20%.
03:14Fifth, advanced higher too.
03:17And I mentioned the survey, that kind of reveals some of the issues
03:22this declining interest is causing in schools.
03:25Almost two-thirds of secondary, state secondaries,
03:28said they were having to run S4 language classes with, you know,
03:32pupils from multiple different levels in the same class just to make them viable.
03:38And I think S5 and S6, there were a lot of reports of classes
03:42just not running, courses not running because of low numbers.
03:48But you mentioned some of the interesting trends,
03:51and I think that's when you look at the individual subjects.
03:55It does highlight a significant shift in language preferences in Scotland.
04:01French really is, I mean, when I was at school,
04:05French was by far the sort of most studies that I was thinking back.
04:08I think when I went into S1, there was six or seven French classes
04:12and one German class, and, you know, that was it.
04:17But French down, higher French, number of entries at higher French
04:20is down by 50% in just the last 10 years.
04:24It's down 43% at advanced higher and down 40% at kind of national 2 to 5.
04:32So down across the board there.
04:35And this is coincided with an increase in Spanish,
04:40which overtook French at higher in 2023
04:45and overtook French at advanced higher and national levels 2 to 5 last year.
04:52So it's now Spanish is now the most studied modern language
04:57in all senior levels at Scottish schools.
05:00Although, interestingly, the survey confirmed that French is still by far
05:05the most popular in primary schools in S1 and S2.
05:10So what you're seeing there is kind of, I guess,
05:13when people get to S4 and get to choose what exams they're going to sit,
05:17what courses, qualifications they're going to go for,
05:20they're opting for Spanish in big numbers.
05:23It's seen also kind of increases in some other languages like Mandarin
05:29and Italian as well.
05:31Gallum, I mean, yeah, we could speculate in the last 10 years
05:36we've obviously had Brexit, which has closed the UK off a little bit more,
05:40looking more inward and less attached to the EU in terms of languages
05:44and the priority of languages.
05:46But also you talk about Spain.
05:49I think it would be the number one travel destination
05:52for people coming out of Scotland for international holidays.
05:56Is it as simple as that?
05:57I'm putting you on the spot a little bit, but is there any analysis
06:00within the report around – and if there wasn't, feel free to say.
06:04There was no analysis, and again, I would just be speculating.
06:08But, I mean, I guess it is a sort of bigger language internationally,
06:11isn't it?
06:12It's spoken by more people around the world.
06:15You've got the whole kind of South America, Latin America.
06:19I don't know if there's sort of cultural influences there
06:24in terms of pop culture, sport even, big interest in Spanish football,
06:28for example.
06:30Yeah, I think you're right.
06:31I think it is the most popular holiday destination for Brits
06:36as far as I know.
06:37But I don't know.
06:38I don't know what the explanation is.
06:41I think that might require another report.
06:45You can read that full story.
06:47It's a fascinating breakdown around what our senior secondary school
06:52students are studying, the decline, but also which languages are performing
06:58or being taken up more than others now with French obviously on the decline,
07:02as Callum has pointed out.
07:04You can read that full story at scotsman.com.
07:07If you go to the Education tab in the navigation bar,
07:10you can get all the very latest from Callum and across education.
07:14Please follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Blue Sky,
07:17and go out and buy a copy of the report.
07:20Tomorrow you'll be able to read the latest from Sir Keith Starmer,
07:23who's been in the EU today.
07:25He will also be responding, no doubt, to further confirmation
07:29from Donald Trump around tariffs, with Trump suggesting they are coming
07:34to the EU, but what's this space?
07:36Perhaps not to the UK and Scotland.
07:38We'll have that full coverage in tomorrow's paper.
07:41Callum, thanks to you and thanks everyone else at home for joining us.
07:45♪