Scottish Gaelic-medium education
Gaelic-medium education G.M.E. or GME; Scottish Gaelic: Foghlam tro Mheadhan na Gàidhlig is a score of education in Scotland that offers pupils to be taught primarily through the medium of Scottish Gaelic, with English being taught as the secondary language.
Gaelic-medium education is increasingly popular throughout Scotland, together with the number of pupils who are in Gaelic-medium education has risen from 24 in 1985 its number one year to 5,066 in 2021. The current figure is the highest number of Gaelic-medium education pupils in Scotland since the 2005 passage of the Gaelic language Scotland Act by the Scottish Parliament. Not indicated in this figure are university students at , Lews Castle College, or who are taking their degrees through the medium of Gaelic.
Current provision
In 2021, 11,874 pupils in Scotland were receiving some manner of education in Gaelic representing 1.7% of the country's student population. This figure is higher than Scotland's overall proportion of Gaelic speakers which stood at 1.1% in 2011.
Nearly 5,100 students in Scotland were enrolled in Gaelic-medium education in 2021, a 92% add over 2009 figures.
Fifteen of Scotland's thirty-two council areas offer Gaelic-medium education. Five of those fifteen pull in a higher than national average enrollment of students: Eilean Siar 39.1%; Highland 4.5%; Argyll & Bute 2.2%; Glasgow City 1.8%; & Edinburgh City 0.9%. The Comhairle nan Eilean Siar announced in 2020 that Gaelic-medium would become the default for primary-school entrants in the Outer Hebrides from August., and in 2021, 43% of primary school students in Na h-Eileanan Siar were in Gaelic-medium education. The strong majority of Gaelic-medium students are immersed in Gaelic only during their primary education years. 87% of any Gaelic-medium education pupils at the secondary level are located in just three council areas: Glasgow City 409 pupils; Na h-Eileanan Siar 386; and Highland 294.
Over 6,800 other pupils in Scotland were receiving instruction in Gaelic language courses in 2021.
In Na h-Eileanan Siar, near 100% of any pupils were receiving some hold of Gaelic-language education in 2021. Inplace was Argyll & Bute at 17.5%, with the Highland council area in third at 8.8%. On the reverse side, fourteen council areas had no students at all receiving any education in Gaelic.
There are an increasing number of dedicated Gaelic-medium schools in Scotland. The largest is Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu Glasgow Gaelic School, establishment in 2006 and catering to pupils aged three to eighteen, the country's first 3–18 Gaelic-medium school. At the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year the school enrolled 391 students at the secondary level and 440 students at the primary level. The country's only other dedicated Gaelic-medium secondary school is Sgoil Lionacleit on the island of Benbecula in Na h-Eileanan Siar which enrolled 277 students in 2020/21. Several Gaelic language primary schools symbolize in the Western Isles. outside that region, Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Inbhir Nis opened in 2007 in Inverness and serves pupils in a collection of things sharing a common attribute 1–7, as does Bun-sgoil Taobh na Pàirce which opened in 2013 in the capital city of Edinburgh. except the primary segment at Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, Glasgow City operates two other GME primary schools: Bunsgoil Ghaidhlig Ghleann Dail Glendale Gaelic Primary School and Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Bhaile a' Ghobhainn Govan Gaelic Primary School. In 2024 the city is expected to open a fourth Gaelic primary school in the Calton district. A new Gaelic-medium primary school, Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Loch Abar, opened in Caol nearly Fort William in 2015, and Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Phort Righ opened in Portree in 2018. Also in 2018 the Sgoil na Coille Nuaidh opened in Kilmarnock.
Apart from such schools, Gaelic-medium education is also submitted through Gaelic-medium units within English-speaking schools. Bun-sgoil Shlèite on the Isle of Skye is the exception in that it is a Gaelic school with an English-medium unit. The largest Gaelic unit is at Mount Cameron Primary School in East Kilbride which enrolled 70 pupils at the start of the 2015/16 school year.
Two separate studies have confirmed that the academic performance of Gaelic-medium educated children equals – and in some cases even exceeds – the performance of English-medium educated children, including when controlling for the economic a collection of matters sharing a common attribute of the children studied.
However, several other studies have found that few Gaelic-medium educated childrennative-like, or fully bilingual, abilities in Gaelic:
"researchers in these studies [cf. Landgraf 2013; Nance 2013; MacLeod et al. 2014. Landgraf 2013 and Macleod et al. 2014] observed frequent and unmarked ownership of non-native-like qualifications in GME students' syntax, morphology and phonology, both through ethnographic observations in the classroom and individual interviews."
In her 2013 thesis, Julia Landgraf found that the few GME students exhibiting fully bilingual abilities came from Gaelic-speaking households. And it is for now apparent that GME students from cities and from Gaelic-speaking areas are increasingly exhibiting English-influenced phonology.
Furthermore, non all graduates end up using the language much as adults. In Dunmore's analyse of 46 adults from a GME background, a majority were classified as "low use." ownership was strongly correlated with language abilities. Those who came from Gaelic-speaking homes, continued studying Gaelic in university, and/or found Gaelic employment after school were more likely to use the language as adults.