Gaelic Medium Education
Gaelic-medium education (GME) is a high priority in the Executive's support for Gaelic .
Provision of GME is the responsibility of local education authorities under education
legislation . Regulations made in 1986 empower the government to pay grants to education
authorities for Gaelic education. The grant rate is set at 75% . Funding for Gaelic
education from the Scottish Executive is £4.0m for 2005-06.
Gaelic-medium education is an education success and is vital to the future of Gaelic .
The Executive's commitment, set out in the Executive 's Policy Document, "Partnership
for Scotland" is to continue to in vest in Gaelic-medium education . Gaelic is the only
language of teaching (other than English) for which the Executive provides specific funding .
Gaelic grants have increased to £4.0m over the past six years.
Gaelic Education Development
The Executive has taken steps to strengthen Gaelic education by including Gaelic in the
framework of National Priorities in education.
The Executive seeks to monitor and measure the extent to which education authorities
respond to parental demand for Gaelic-medium education. The Standards in Scotland's
Schools etc Act 2000 requires Local Authorities to include in their annual statement of
improvement objectives their plans for Gaelic-medium education framework.
Teacher recruitment is a critical issue which the Scottish Executive is addressing. There
are many important initiatives being put in place at a national level. Ministers' have set
up two Working Groups, one to look at ICT delivery in secondary education and one to
look at recruitment and training of GME Teachers. Other measures in which the
Executive is confident of success include the new part-time and distance learning routes
in to Gaelic medium teaching, which has provided successful teachers who trained in
Stornoway and Inverness in 2004-05, which will be extended to Islay in 2006.
Statistics (as prepared by University of Strathclyde)
Pupil numbers in Gaelic-medium education in 2004-05
Pupil numbers in 2004-05 compared with those recorded last session
04/05 03/04 +/-
Nursery School 638 629 +9
Primary 2008 1972 +36
Secondary 307 288 +19
• The number of schools offering Gaelic-medium education increased from 60-61 .
The additional school is Boner Bridge
• 328 pupils enrolled in Primary 1 in 2004-05 compared to 314 in 2003-04 session
• Pupil numbers in creased significantly in the following Primary schools in
2004-05
Edinburgh + 14 Castlebay +4
Glasgow +11 Forfar +4
Fort William +9 Greenock +4
Stirling +8 Tain +4
Bishopbriggs +7 Aird +3
Sleat +6 Bowmore +3
Oban +5 East Kilbride +3
Staffin +5 Lionel +3
Balallan +4
• 134 of the 245 pupil s (55%) who left Primary School proceeded to Gaelic medium
education at Secondary in 2004-05 session. This was an increase of 8%
• The number of Secondary Schools providing Gaelic-medium education in
2004-05 session increase by 3%
Pupil numbers in Gaelic Classes in 2004-05
Numbers for the session 20 04-05 compared with figures for 2003-04 session :-
2004-05 2003-04 +/-
Fluent Speakers 990 978 +12
Learners 2583 2513 +73
• The number of pupils studying for higher Gaidhlig has risen by 13 to 106 and
the number taking Advance Higher has more than doubles to 29
• The number of Learners studying for Higher remains stable at 125 but there has
been a sharp drop from 38 to 9 in the numbers taking Advanced Higher