Chamber and committees

That is a brilliant non-answer.

Let us see if Robert can have a stab at it.

I was a wee bit surprised that you struggled to answer that last question. Ensuring that what you measure does not underestimate or overestimate the state of pupils’ education is fundamental to what you do, but you admitted that it was difficult and I am puzzled by that. However, we will move on.

David Middleton, the chair of the SQA, rebutted some of the evidence that Ken Muir gave to the committee in March. He said that he was “surprised and disappointed” and that he played back Professor Muir’s words to him. Did you agree with David Middleton’s statement?

Does that reveal a tension in the reform debate? Do you disagree more broadly with Professor Muir’s approach? We had not seen such a statement before then, so what does it reveal? Will you tell us what is going on?

Thanks for what you do for the language. I can tell by your passion and enthusiasm this morning that you are great advocates for it.

I think that we all feel a bit uncomfortable that we are not conducting this session in the language—I think that it is a bit of an insult. To be honest, you should not need to repeat things in English. If I were you, I would be a little less diplomatic about that. Nevertheless, let us move on.

I am interested in the wider community engagement. I understand that we are making good progress in getting more learners but that we are not making much progress in people speaking the language at home. What can you do to make sure that we make that kind of progress?

You are in charge.

Do you think that there is a bit of a tension between people in those traditional communities and those who are learners? On the initiative to spread the language across the country, you talked about potentially losing a teacher from your community, who would go off and teach elsewhere. Is it resented locally that somehow people lose out because of the success of the language elsewhere?

Surely, there cannot be anything more intimidating than Mairi MacInnes. [Laughter.]

There was a proposal—on Skye, possibly—for a community or a housing development just for the speakers of the language. Would you support something like that? Do you think that it would be a positive development?

There has probably been a more positive view of college management in today’s evidence session than there was in last week’s session with the trade unions. You have probably observed that there has been quite a lot of industrial dissent in the sector and that industrial relations are not particularly strong. Does anybody have a view on why that is and how we might be able to resolve that? Again, that is a big question, but the mood today is very different from last week and I am interested in why that is the case.

Let me be a bit more provocative.