The Scotsman Bulletin Monday February 03 2025 #Education

The Scotsman

Transcript

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♪

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