HC Deb 12 March 1981 vol 1000 cc391-3W
Mr. John MacKay

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the number of secondary teachers of Gaelic who qualified from colleges of education in each of the last five years.

Mr. Alexander Fletcher

The numbers of students in recent years successfully completing courses of preservice teacher training leading to a teaching qualification (secondary education) with Gaelic as a main subject are as follows:

Session Number
1975–76 Not available
1976–77 5
1977–78 2
1978–79 4
1979–80 3

Mr. John MacKay

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many vacancies exist for teachers of Gaelic in secondary schools in Scotland; and how many secondary teachers of Gaelic currently are unemployed.

Mr. Alexander Fletcher

The information requested is not available centrally.

Mr. John MacKay

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list those secondary schools in Scotland at which Gaelic is taught, giving the number of teachers and the number of pupils taught.

Mr. Alexander Fletcher

The following table shows for each region and islands area and for the administrative divisions of Strathclyde the number of education authority secondary schools recorded in the September 1979 schools census as making provision for the teaching of Gaelic:

Number of schools Number of teachers Number of pupils
Borders
Central
Dumfries and Galloway
Fife 1 1 1
Grampian
Highland 12 17 805
Lothian
Strathclyde:
Argyll and Bute 4 5 372
Ayr
Dunbarton
Glasgow 4 4 137
Lanark
Renfrew

Number of schools Number of teachers Number of pupils
Tayside 2 2 103
Orkney
Shetland
Western Isles 15 35 1,691
SCOTLAND 38 64 3,109

If my hon. Friend wishes to obtain more detailed information about provision in any particular area, I suggest that he might approach the education authority concerned.

Back to