Rise in foreign assistants at Scots schools

THE number of foreign language assistants working in schools in Scotland is to rise by almost 20 per cent for the first time in seven years.

The British Council Scotland said there will be 70 foreign language assistants working in Scotland next year – 46 in state schools and 24 in independent schools.

The numbers are still considerably less than they were in 2005 when there were 284 language assistants working in Scottish schools.

Lloyd Anderson, director of British Council Scotland, said: “We are delighted that the number of FLAs working in Scotland’s schools is set to increase. Much more will need to be done to get FLA numbers back to the levels of six or seven years ago.”