Teachers left struggling as 138 languages spoken in class

Published on Monday 21 September 2009 22:05

A MAJOR report by school inspectors shows teachers increasingly struggle to cope with the influx of non-English speaking youngsters in Scotland's classrooms.

The New Scots report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) says few councils have formal guidance or procedures for such children and the same weaknesses in the system have existed for a decade.

Currently there are at least 138 languages spoken in Scotland, including English, Russian, Farsi and Tagalog.

The report described English as an additional language (EAL) services as "severely stretched" and warned several parts of the country were facing a "significant challenge".

It said areas with most experience with children whose first language is not English, such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, cope best. The influx was fanning out from cities and putting "extensive demands on specialist staff" outside the central belt.

It said: "Many class teachers do not feel confident in knowing how best to respond to newly– arrived children's needs."

It continues "... the same weaknesses exist in supporting the achievements of new arrivals with English as an additional language as have been present for at least the past ten years."

The report surveyed all 32 local authorities and conducted interviews with teachers, pupils and parents in 17.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, said there was a shortage of specialist language teachers.

She said: "There are 28 teachers of English as an additional language in Scotland and 24 are in Glasgow. You begin to understand why Glasgow has better results in this area than anyone else. Highland and Inverclyde have one each, East Renfrewshire has one and Dundee City has one.

"It is a huge problem in places like Aberdeenshire which have a huge eastern European influx to the fishing industry and teachers don't have the skills to speak languages like Lithuanian."

Labour schools spokesman Ken Macintosh said: "The report highlights the fact we've been making the same mistakes for ten years.

"Each local authority is trying to do what it can, but the government should accept national responsibility. If you come across good practice in one area and poor in another area, that's when national leadership should step in."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Children of migrant workers are entitled to the same levels of education and support from local authorities as any other child. Councils have a duty to identify and meet the additional support needs of all pupils, including children with English as an additional language."

He said 2.7 million of additional funding had been allocated for English teaching.

FIRST LANGUAGE

1. Punjabi 4,682

2. Urdu 4,002

3. Polish 3,347

4. Cantonese 1,508

5. Arabic 1,277

6. French 740

7. Gaelic 638

8. Bengali/Bangala 531

9. German 473

10. Spanish 412