Holyrood – Alan Robertson
“Studying a foreign language should be compulsory from the year children start school in order for Scottish firms to compete in the international export market, a business group has urged. Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic and Russian have been pinpointed by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) as “international languages of business” that must be made mandatory in the education curriculum from primary 1 onwards. It has called on government to implement the measure by 2020 to ensure Scottish businesses have sufficient cultural and language skills to tap into a number of growing economies…“If we want to be more international, then we need to think more international, beginning in our schools, where international business languages must be taught from primary school right through to the end of secondary schooling and beyond,” said SCC director and chief executive, Liz Cameron OBE. “Over the past two decades, the number of students studying modern languages at Higher or equivalent has fallen by over 20 per cent. This is a damaging trend which needs to be reversed. “We should look more closely at where economic growth will be attained and that should determine the languages delivered by the supply side, ensuring the curriculum reflects needs of business more.””(more)