Fears for Gaelic as pupils decline in its heartland

NEW figures show a drop in children studying Gaelic in the Western Isles, the language’s traditional stronghold in Scotland.

Numbers sitting Gaelic exams in the third and fourth year of secondary schools across the islands fell consistently from 78 to just 24 over the decade from 2006/7 to 2016/17, before rallying up to 49 for this school year.

The decline mirrors a drop across Scotland, with a nine per cent fall in entries for all Gaelic exams in 2017, including National 5 and Higher, despite a multi-million-pound campaign to promote the language. The numbers studying Gaelic language Higher have halved over the decade from 154 in 2006 to only 69 last year, and for Advanced Higher, dropping from 17 candidates to nine.

With just ‘a bare minimum’ of the population speaking Gaelic, leading academic Professor Rob Dunbar, chairman of Celtic languages at Edinburgh University, was reported to fear Gaelic speakers would soon become a minority in their heartland of the Western Isles, and urged Western Isles Council, which is responsible for four secondary schools, to do more to promote the language.

Emphasising this year’s doubling of Gaelic students, Western Isles Council (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) blamed the Scottish Qualification Authority’s ‘dated’ examinations.

A spokesperson said: ‘We recognise that the numbers studying Gaelic have declined in recent years but show encouraging growth in session 2017/18.

‘Our teachers work very hard, and the authority is very pro-active in promoting Gaelic, but some of the elements in SQA courses are very dated and do not appeal to young people or relate to their lives.

‘The comhairle runs a personalisation and choice exercise each year where young people choose from a menu of courses based on needs, training and aspirations. This provides young people with a much wider range of courses that was previously available to them and, as a consequence, numbers for Higher has dropped considerably in almost all subjects in comparison with the number opting for Higher in previous years.

‘We would contend that young people are studying courses that are of more relevance to their career than was the case in 2007.’

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has prepared a draft of its Gaelic Language Plan for 2018-2022, which aims to arrest the decline and plan for the growth in the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland, and launched a consultation until November 20.

Councillor John A MacIver, chairman of the comhairle’s Gaelic Committee, said: ‘This is a very ambitious plan with deliverable aims and outcomes. The comhairle remains committed to strengthening Gaelic in the Western Isles and although we realise there is still work to do, there are also some very encouraging signs, with pre-school numbers looking very healthy.

‘Indeed, we hope that this generation will emerge as fluent and confident speakers who are proud of their language. We are also aware of the economic value of the language to the islands and we hope the plan will help to promote the opportunities that exist in relation to the culture and heritage aspects of the language.’

The 2011 census revealed the Western Isles/Na h-Eileanan Siar had by far the greatest concentration of people aged three and over with Gaelic skills in Scotland, at 61.2 per cent of the population. Highland and Argyll and Bute came second and third with 7.4 per cent and 5.9 per cent respectively, and Glasgow was fourth, equalling the Scottish national percentage of 1.7 per cent.