Alarm as schools axe foreign language aides

THE number of language assistants in Scottish schools has dropped by 80 per cent in the past six years, sparking fears that they are being phased out.

More than three quarters of Scottish councils have now completely axed their programme of foreign language-speaking teaching assistants, with just seven councils employing 41 native speakers of Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish in state schools this year. Another 18 are working in private schools.

Since 2006 the number of language assistants has fallen from around 300 to just 59 this year.

The British Council Scotland, which is funded by the Scottish Government to run the national language assistant programme, said that Scotland could miss out on foreign investment because its citizens could speak only English.

Lloyd Anderson, director of British Council Scotland, said: “Assistants perform a vital role in supporting language teachers by bringing a cultural dimension to language-learning that enthuses and inspires young people.

“Teachers are in no doubt that this helps increase linguistic fluency and makes it more likely a young person will continue studying languages to a high level.

“In an increasingly globalised world, Scotland needs to be outward-looking.

“Scotland could miss out on international investment and export opportunities if we simply expect everyone to speak English.”

The body, which promotes the UK’s international links, said it believed the 2008 shift from ring-fencing Scottish council budgets and recent spending cuts had led to the drop.

In the past year alone, council-run schools in Scotland have seen a cut of more than 50 per cent from 104 language assistants to 41. While English schools are also cutting back on support traditionally provided by foreign students, the drop has been far less significant – just 21 per cent since 2006.

The move flies in the face of an acknowledgement from the Scottish Government that foreign languages will be important for Scotland’s future prospects in the globalised economy of the 21st century.

Recently, it stated that it wanted Scottish pupils to learn at least two languages as well as their mother tongue and has set up a Languages Working Group, which will report to ministers next spring on how this will be delivered.

However, the message is clearly not getting through to councils despite the cost of a language assistant falling recently from £9,000 to £7,911 per year and more schools sharing language assistants.

School Leaders Scotland general secretary Ken Cunningham said: “At a time of significant government support for reinforcing the essential place of modern languages in our schools and society, it seems terribly short-sighted to be removing one of the key elements of language study.

“While all of us recognise the hard choices to be made in a time of severe financial restraint, those with influence should think seriously about the impact of such reductions.”

French still remains the language that Scottish school pupils are most likely to study, with 36,902 students sitting exams in the subject in 2011. That was a fall of 3,000 on the previous year.

The number of students sitting exams in other modern languages, such as German and Italian, also fell last year, though numbers were rising in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian and Urdu classes.

John Brand, chairman of the European Movement in Scotland, said: “The ability to communicate with foreign visitors and business contacts in their own language is the most effective way to establish friendships and good working relationships.

“It makes travel and overseas business easier, and aids the understanding of other cultures.

“Language assistants are uniquely able to provide genuine fluency, idiom and accent, as well as personal knowledge of their culture. “

Mr Brand added: “Predominantly youthful themselves, they are easy for children to engage with and provide a low-cost and valuable complement to professional language teachers.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We work in close partnership with the British Council on a range of issues and welcome its campaign to raise awareness of the importance of modern languages in schools.

“Indeed, we provide funding to the British Council to support our commitment to modern languages and to the building of international links for our schools, including the foreign language assistants programme.”`