On 14 December 2012, the European and External Relations Committee at Holyrood launched an inquiry into language teaching in Scottish primary schools, following research suggesting Scotland lags behind many other countries in linguistic skills.
The inquiry was conducted in three stages between December 2012 and June 2013 and consisted of visits to primary schools to discuss the issues with those most involved and evidence from stakeholders with an interest in the subject.
Key findings and recommendations to the Government was published in June 2013. Full details an be downloaded from the Scottish Parliament website.
The inquiry was covered extensively in the press:
- Inquiry into language teaching (BBC News, 14 December 2012)
- Primary adds success by teaching 1+5 (TESS, 14 December 2012)
- Scottish Government Languages Working Group key recommendations (The Herald, 17 May 2012
- Working group speaks out on languages plan (TESS, 18 May 2012)
- Scotland's pupils play language catch up (Daily Express, 18 May 2012)
- School pupils could be taught a second language from primary one (STV News , 17 May 2012)
- Call to teach second language in Scots schools from P1 (BBC News, 17 May 2012)
- Pupils to be taught foreign language from first year of primary school (Daily Record, 17 May 2012)
- £500m 'language tax' cost to Scots economy (The Herald, 18 May 2012)
- High price for decade of failings (The Herald, 18 May 2012)
- Four-year-olds to start learning two foreign languages (The Telegraph, 18 May 2012)