The recent announcement that the University of Aberdeen has lifted the threat of compulsory redundancy from its languages staff and will continue to deliver joint degrees in languages was a rare moment of good news for the languages sector.
But the focus on universities hides a much greater opportunity to secure a sustainable future for languages. The curriculum review taking place following the publication of Professor Louise Hayward’s report, It’s Our Future, is a chance to reflect on what languages should look like going forward.
This is a critical moment. Global citizenship is intrinsic to the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), and since 2011 the Scottish government has signalled the strategic importance of languages by investing over £36 million in languages provision in the “broad general education (BGE)”. The introduction of languages from the age of 5 established language-learning as the norm, and many schools embraced it as an opportunity to revise their BGE provision.
But with the implementation and funding of the 1+2 languages policy now complete, there is a real danger that this progress will be squandered.
Read More...