Dozens of school pupils from East Lothian are being transported to Edinburgh to receive a Gaelic education, a new report has revealed.
East Lothian Council works in partnership with the city’s local authority to ensure families who want their children to be educated in Gaelic classrooms can be found places.
A new report updating East Lothian’s Gaelic Language Plan revealed that last year 22 primary school learners from the county attended City of
Edinburgh Gaelic Medium Education provision at Parkside Primary in the Capital with 18 secondary learners attending James Gillespie’s High School.
it also revealed parents now have access to Gaelic Medium playgroups in Edinburgh through partner providers and at a range of locations across the city.
Earlier this year a report on the 2022 census revealed the number of people with Gaelic skills in East Lothian has nearly doubled over the last 14 years with 1, 396 residents above the age of three stating they have some ability to use the traditional language.
It added out of those, 638 said they spoke Gaelic with 452 people who said they could speak and read but not write Gaelic and 385 Gaelic literate speakers while 15 people said that Gaelic was their main language.
A report on the draft updated Gaelic Language Plan for the council covering the next five years said a recent survey of its own 4936 employees had found 11 employees, nine of whom were teachers, spoke Gaelic, while 13, including the teachers, could read the language and another six, five of them teachers, said they could write Scots Gaelic.
The report acknowledges that in East Lothian lowland Scots rather than Gaelic would have been spoken but points to the famous Battle of Prestonpans which took place in the county in 1745 when the mainly Gaelic speaking Jacobite army led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, won a resounding victory against Government forces.
A report asking councillors to approve the draft Gaelic Language Plan,which sets out how the council will continue to use, and enable the use of, Gaelic in relation to its main business functions, will be put to them at a meeting next week.
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
