New Petitions

The final new petition for consideration is PE177, which calls on the Scottish Government to introduce British Sign Language into curriculum for excellence.

Our briefing explains that very little of the school curriculum is statutory, although local authorities have a statutory duty to secure an adequate and efficient education for children of school age. Beyond that, young people are largely able to choose which qualifications they wish to take. The Scottish Qualifications Authority offers a number of qualifications on BSL.

The British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 places a duty on the Scottish Government

“to promote, and facilitate the promotion of, the use and understanding of British Sign Language”.

Local authorities must also produce BSL plans that set out what they will do in relation to use of BSL.

Do members have any comments or suggestions for action?

The issue has featured in Parliament since its beginning. Back in the day, there was a lot of very effective campaigning on teacher training. Of course, now we have the 2015 act.

I have been in conversation with young people who use BSL. One of their issues is the capacity of BSL teachers to operate at the level that is appropriate to their level of learning. It is not the basic stuff—for people who are trying to learn advanced higher physics, a much higher BSL skill level is required.

BSL should be more embedded in the system. It is such a basic thing: young people should be able to communicate with other young people, and the matter very much goes along with what we regard as inclusive education.

It would be interesting to write to the Scottish Government and Education Scotland. We would also be interested to hear from anyone else who has an interest in and is aware of the petition. We do not have to write to them, but such organisations might wish to say what they think introducing BSL into the curriculum would look like, and to give their views on schools’ capacity to deliver that. There are some positive actions to take. Do members agree to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

We have come to the end of our agenda. I thank everyone for their attendance.

Meeting closed at 11:17.