Chamber and committees

I am very grateful for that.

We have heard about local authorities, which are, no doubt, not flush with resources and cash at the moment, for whatever reason. When discussing Gaelic earlier, Donald Macleod said that one of the issues with Gaelic is that teachers are not confident. He talked about confidence in spelling, and Seonaidh Charity talked about teachers having to create resources.

Joan Esson, are there existing resources for the Scots language in grammar, spelling and accepted words for each dialect that we have just heard about, or will those require to be produced for each? If so, who will do it and at what cost?

Is there any way of defining exhaustively what those dialects are, or is there a certain level at which a pattern of speech—if I can call it that—requires to become a dialect?

What Scots is being taught on that course? How is it standardised—or is it bespoke to each individual learner, or teacher, for their area?

Yes.

I will press you on that. Just to be clear, if the bill is passed, will Education Scotland be producing materials for each dialect, or is it the expectation that the individual classroom teacher will produce the materials with which to teach?

I would not be surprised if the committee would appreciate having the data that you just talked about, as well as links to those resources.

I am going to ask Donald Macleod a question, but Bruce Eunson will want to stand ready, because he might want to come back in.

Earlier, Seonaidh Charity talked about the difficulties with training and recruiting Gaelic teachers and enabling Gaelic teachers to teach their specialism. Given something that you said earlier, Donald, do you have any ideas around how we train teachers to deliver teaching in their dialect of Scots, and can you give an indication of where we might be offering places for that, and, indeed, whether there is a demand for that from teachers?

I understand. My colleagues might wish to come in on that, but I would like to ask a further question. Would you accept, then, that “the Scots language” as envisaged by the bill is a catch-all term for various dialects, which will require to be promoted as individual dialects in individual areas?

Good morning, panel. I will come to Bruce Eunson first. I would like to move to part 2 of the bill, which is on Scots. I am interested in how Scots, in particular, can be supported in education. Education Scotland’s submission notes that we need a

“more detailed description of what Scots is”.

Slightly unhelpfully, in my view, the bill defines “Scots language” as “the Scots language”. In your view, what definition of the Scots language will professionals need to use? If we accept that it is something of an all-encompassing term that incorporates various dialects—for example, Doric—is there an accepted definition of which dialects are included, such that a teacher can be confident that they are teaching Scots?

That would do. [Laughter.]

When they are training in Scots, what are they training in? Are they training in Doric Scots, Orkney Scots and so on? How does that work?