Response to Updates to Statutory Guidance on Gaelic Education consultation

Professor Emeritus Wilson McLeod and Senior Lecturer in Language Education Fiona O’Hanlon of the University of Edinburgh responded to Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s public consultation on Updates to Statutory Guidance on Gaelic Education.

The current Guidance on Gaelic Education only addresses school education. However, section 9 of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, which requires the Bòrd to prepare this guidance, extends to the provision of all forms of ‘Gaelic education’ and is not limited to school education. The Act was amended via the Education (Scotland) Act 2016 to specify that the guidance ‘may, in particular, include provision relating to the provision of Gaelic education in schools’ (section 9(1A)), thus making clear that the general term ‘Gaelic education’ is broader than Gaelic education. 

It is also noteworthy that section 13 of the pending Scottish Languages Bill, which creates a new section 6C of the 2016 Act that reassigns the obligation to prepare guidance on Gaelic education to the Scottish Ministers, specifies that it extends to all Scottish public authorities (unlike the new sections 6A and 6B, which relate only to schools and education authorities). The new section 6C relates to ‘Scottish public authorities’ (subsection 1) and to ‘Scottish public authorit[ies] having functions relating to education’. Section 9A of the bill, meanwhile, extends the definition of ‘relevant public authority’ under the 2005 Act to include any ‘post-16 education body within the meaning of section 35 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005.’

One example of the need for such guidance is that Universities providing Initial Teacher Education in Scotland are asked by the Scottish Funding Council to ‘note the priorities relating to teacher education contained within the National Gaelic Language Plan and the 2017 Gaelic Education Guidance. In addition, universities are asked to contribute to the teacher education work stream of Faster Rate of Progress initiative for Gaelic.’  (2024, p.5).  Neither the National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-28 or the Statutory Guidance on Gaelic Education (2017) identify priorities for the University sector in relation to Gaelic, and the Faster Rate of Progress documents are not publicly available online.  The draft of the revised guidance also makes no mention of universities or colleges.  We would thus ask Bòrd na Gàidhlig to consider the inclusion of guidance for Universities and Colleges within the revised Statutory Guidance on Gaelic Education (2025).

Reference: Scottish Funding Council (2024) University intake targets for Initial Teacher Education 2024-25.  Edinburgh: Scottish Funding Council.