This blog has been created to offer everyone with an interest in Gaelic Medium Education (GME) a place to keep up to date with GME developments in Edinburgh and Scotland

At present in Edinburgh – the capital of Scotland, we have a very successful Gaelic Medium Unit based in Tollcross Primary School, a Unit that is attaining great educational results through its pupils and proving more and more popular each year.

All parents with children at the Tollcross GME Unit would agree that our children enjoy a fantastic education.  They are fluent in a second language, they have opportunities to learn traditional musical instruments, enter the annual Mod competitions and seem more than willing to entertain us with Gaelic songs and poems.

Gaelic in Edinburgh has never had the momentum of Glasgow nor the numbers of native speaking Gaelic families, however the East coast has woken up to the advantages of Gaelic and seems to be demanding in ever increasing numbers access to its educational system out of choice.

In a city where 1 in 4 parents choose private education and in a country where educational attainment levels have been criticised lately, Gaelic education stands out.

Right now Tollcross can still accommodate the number of children entering both the Gaelic and English Units within the school – both of which are sitting at 25 children for the August 2009 entry.  The school looks full and buzzing with energy.  Next year or the year after are these numbers still tolerable to a small 12 classroom school?

We hope for the sake of new parents that space can be found, the option chosen to accommodate children entering the system is not ours to dictate, but all arguments seem to point to the creation of a Gaelic school as the best option for the children and the Gaelic language.

Rather than have to learn in a language they may come to see as an academic language, they should be able to speak and develop their Gaelic linguistic vocabulary in the playground, the dining hall, the line ups etc – places where at present speaking English seems more natural – it’s what the other half of the school speak, half the teachers, the anciliary staff etc.

The real shame will come if children have to be turned away.  Who will lose out.  Not our children for they are in the system.  Not the siblings of our children, because the numbers involved would indicate that they would get a place in the system.  It is the families around Edinburgh who would like to enter this educational model in the next few years that may have to go elsewhere and if their first child doesn’t get into the Gaelic Nursery or the Tollcross Unit they are unlikely to send further siblings.

All in all it would be a great shame if our capital city is faced with this scenario.  You only have to look at the situation in Glasgow to see how GME could develop in Edinburgh.   However, everything around the re-establishment of Gaelic as a living language in Edinburgh has been a struggle instigated by parents and the situation at present is no different.