An initiative to support the teaching of foreign languages in schools has been quietly axed by ministers despite the Scottish Government praising its work.
The withdrawal of the programme was buried in the detail of budget documents published last month which have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of other funding reductions which have recently emerged.
The papers reveal that funding for the 1+2 languages learning policy was in fact withdrawn for the financial year 2023/24 and will not be replaced in the coming financial year.
Introduced in 2013, the scheme was designed to try to encourage the uptake of languages in primary schools in a bid to ensure that every child can learn one modern language. Additionally, under the scheme each child was entitled to learn a second language from primary 5 onwards.
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But the budget documents reveal that while £1.2m was spent on the initiative in 2022/3, no funding was given to it in this year or will be next year.
The Scottish Government told The Herald that it had been the intention to end the scheme in 2021, but funding continued to 2022/23 as a result of Covid. A spokesperson added that language learning had now becomee 'normalised' in primary and secondary schools from primary one to S3 and language teaching was financially supported in other ways.
However, figures suggest a significant drop over the last decade in pupils taking French and German at Higher level.
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A total of 4,239 pupils sat French Higher in 2013 with the number falling to 2280 this year, according to the Scottish Qualifications Authority's statistics.
The statistics showed that 520 pupils sat German Higher in 2023 - down from 1051 in 2013.
However, more positively, the figures also showed an increasing trend towards pupils taking Spanish, with 1,645 Higher entries in the subject in 2013 rising to 2605 this year, overtaking French.
The decrease though in French and German has even raised concerns among European diplomats with German Ambassador to the UK Miguel Berger expressing his worries to the First Minister Humza Yousaf about the low number of pupils taking German.
He later said that British companies in Germany and German firms in the UK were struggling to find British people including Scots who could speak the language.
Responding to a report in the Herald on Sunday in November of the conversation between Mr Yousaf and Mr Berger the previous month, the Scottish Government drew attention to the benefits of the 1+2 languages learning policy.
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A spokesperson told the paper then: "It is important for young people to learn European and global languages, in addition to gaining an understanding of worldwide issues and cultures.
“This is why we have invested over £50 million since 2013 in the 1+2 languages learning policy, which sees every child learn additional languages starting in the first year of primary school. This cultural shift in our approach has supported young people’s awareness of foreign languages, culture and global issues and has now been embedded across Scottish schools."
Last week a debate was held in Holyrood amid plans by Aberdeen University to drop single honours in languages amid low demand though it is planned that students can still take joint honours in languages.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary, Liam Kerr MSP said: “Learning languages from a young age is hugely beneficial for pupils. It helps them excel in other areas, and brings a wealth of travelling, studying and work opportunities in their future.
“But once again the SNP are short-changing them by removing this funding. This once again exposes as a complete nonsense the SNP claim that education is their number priority.
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“Ministers repeatedly over promise and under deliver on education and the axing of this programme will only harm young people’s development in the classroom.
“After close to 17 years of failure in education, it’s time the SNP properly funded the education programmes they promised to deliver.”
Scottish Labour's education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “The chance to learn a foreign language is incredibly important but under the SNP the learning of modern languages is in terminal decline.
“We now face a situation where the number of pupils learning a foreign language is in freefall, the number of modern languages teachers is falling and universities are considering abandoning courses altogether.
“The young people of Scotland should not miss out on the enormous cultural, economic and personal benefits that learning languages can bring. SNP incompetence can no longer be allowed to stymie the potential of our young people.”
Scottish Lib Dem education spokesperson Willie Rennie said: "Much as SNP ministers can't seem to decide whether they want taxes to go up or down, it seems like they can't decide whether they want language learning to go up or down either."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Funding for the languages 1+2 policy was provided in order to help develop and support its roll-out in schools across Scotland. It has resulted in £36.8million of additional funding for councils over the past decade, on top of their core education grant, to implement this approach.
“The intention had been for the 1+2 policy to be fully implemented by 2021, but the impact of the COVID pandemic meant the Scottish Government extended this funding into 2022/23 when it came to an end.
“The 2021 survey of local authorities demonstrated that language learning has become a normal part of the curriculum with nearly all primary and secondary schools delivering language learning from Primary 1 through to the end of S3.”
The Scottish Government continues to provide funding to Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) based in University of Strathclyde, to provide additional practical support for language learning and teaching in schools across Scotland. £900,000 of funding was provided to SCILT in 2023/24.
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