“Most deprived” children struggle more with modern languages
A university lecturer has claimed that some of the poorest Scottish schools are failing to offer modern languages to students.
Francisco Valdera-Gil has been giving evidence to MSPs at the Scottish Government’s Education Committee for its inquiry into subject choice at schools.
He said: “I work in teacher education, I also work with teachers delivering the one plus two, and I can see that there are schools in Glasgow that are most deprived are the ones that tend not to do the modern languages.
“There’s 4,000 words in English that come from French and it’s through the learning of language that our students are exposed to that.”
He added: “There’s no reason why modern language could not be part of another qualification – there’s no reason why it cannot be part of science, of geography, of art, of any other subject.
“I think there is a notion in the four nations of the UK that people are just bad at languages, the thought that a language is more difficult than another subject, it is not.
“But whether we like it or not, that is a myth that people live with and that makes them not take the subject.
“There is work to be done in schools to convince the population, to manage their expectations, that languages can be done.”
It was also argued in the committee meeting that less Scottish schools are providing Gaelic as a subject option.
Catriona MacPhee from the Gaelic Secondary Teachers Association Comann Luchd-Teagaisg Ard Sgoiltean, said: “The narrowing of subject choices in many Scottish schools has had a profoundly negative effect on the uptake of Gaelic – especially, but not exclusively, that of Gaelic learners.
“It does need urgent intervention to protect Gaelic itself, Gaelic education and most relevant today, the right of Scotland’s young people to learn Gaelic in their schools.”
Earlier in the inquiry it was suggested that less subjects are offered at schools in areas of higher deprivation.
