Primary and secondary Gaelic education budgets: FOI release
- Published
- 28 January 2025
- Directorate
- Education Reform Directorate
- Topic
- Education, Public sector
- FOI reference
- FOI/202400439258
- Date received
- 4 November 2024
- Date responded
- 18 November 2024
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
1. The cost to the taxpayer for running Gaelic primary schools throughout Scotland on an annual basis (10-year period), broken down into cost of teachers, administrators and property.
2. Pupil numbers in Gaelic primary schools over the same period (10-year period).
3. The cost to the taxpayer for the Gaelic curriculum in secondary schools, and how many pupils have undertaken the subject at secondary school level per annum over the past 10 years.
Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not directly manage or monitor the budgets of schools that are run by local authorities. As such the running costs of Gaelic schools is not held by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government does provide specific funding to local authorities for their Gaelic education budgets, but the information the Scottish Government holds on this is not broken down by category - this information is attached in Annex A. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
Additionally, the information for the whole pupil numbers in Gaelic primary schools over the last 10-year period is partially publicly available. The Scottish Government holds this information for 2023, which you can find attached in Annex B. Otherwise, the Scottish Government published pupil numbers online from 2018 -2023 in the School level summary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), and from 1996 to 2018 in the School pupil, school and teacher historical time series - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
Similarly to your question on Primary school costs, secondary schools are also managed by local authorities and the Scottish Government does not hold information on the total cost of the Secondary Gaelic curriculum. As outlined above, the information we hold on the Scottish Government funding which has been provided to local authorities to support their Gaelic education budgets, which applies across both primary and secondary education, is attached at Annex A.
With regards to the number of pupils undertaking Gaelic at secondary school, the Scottish Government holds information on the number of pupils that entered both the Gaelic Learners and Gaidhlig exams in the requested years, which is attached in Annex C. We note that this is not the exact information you have requested, which the Scottish Government does not hold. For clarity, the information in Annex C is for pupils that were entered for exams in each of the years requested, and not all pupils who may have undertaken the subject at any point in Secondary school during those years. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the specific information you have requested.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
- File type
- File size
- 134.7 kB
- File type
- Excel document
- File size
- 12.9 kB
- File type
- Excel document
- File size
- 25.6 kB
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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