Twelve languages were spoken for the first time in Scottish classrooms last year, including Kaonde, Mupun, Rugika and Sourashtra.
Twelve languages were spoken for the first time in Scottish classrooms last year, including Kaonde, Mupun, Rugika and Sourashtra.
The new additions - from as far afield as Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda and Tamil Nadu - join established tongues such as Polish, Urdu, Punjabi, Cantonese and Arabic, which together help make up the 138 languages now spoken in our schools.
On the face of it, this plethora of languages highlights the success of the previous Scottish Executive's proposals to encourage immigration to offset domestic population decline, as well as being a reflection of the growing influx of asylum seekers to the UK. It is also evidence beyond doubt of the fact Scotland is now a multi-cultural society.
While there are those that decry the increase as a drain on public resources, a government-backed report published last December suggests Scotland needs more, rather than fewer immigrants, if the economy is to continue to thrive.
However, the fact children of these newcomers are now arriving in our schools has created a significant issue in its own right, and one which is causing growing concern to teaching unions, local authorities and academics.
It is not entirely a new issue. In October last year, the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CiLT) published a report on the mushrooming number of different languages as a result of increased labour mobility within the EU, immigration, and greater numbers of asylum seekers and refugees.
The report concluded that Scotland's economy could suffer unless the growing diversity of languages spoken in schools was given recognition and support.
Joanna McPake, of CiLT concluded: "Scotland is not currently in a good position to capitalise on its linguistic resources."
Statistics published yesterday show just how rapidly the situation has escalated in just one year. Figures from the Scottish Government show the number of pupils not fluent in English rose by 62.5% between 2006 and 2007 from 9486 to 15,411. Of these, 3595 had no English at all. In Glasgow alone, new children from overseas are arriving in the city at the rate of five a day - more than a new class every week - and yet the council is given no additional money to provide the teaching support that is needed, apart from for asylum seekers.
The council argues it costs them £2.5m a year to teach English to the children of economic immigrants alone, money which comes entirely from their own budgets.
Gordon Matheson, the council's convener of education, said: "We welcome the contribution immigrants and asylum seekers make, but the Scottish Government needs to recognise the significant pressures on education services and respond with additional resources. It is not acceptable to say the concordat provides enough money for this."
Despite this the Scottish Government yesterday insisted sufficient resources were in place. A spokeswoman said: "We are aware the increase is causing pressures within councils but under the budget agreement with local authorities, there should be sufficient money for them to deal with these issues."
John Stodter, general secretary of the Association of Directors of Education, believes the Scottish Government models for projecting pupil numbers have not been sufficiently sophisticated to pick up the rapid rise in migration from eastern European countries and thinks more must be done to identify schools and local authorities most in need.
He said: "Once we have identified gaps in resources we can build a national strategy with government to address those challenges."
The Educational Institute of Scotland and the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association say extra money must come from government.
Eric Wilkinson, professor of education at Glasgow University, said: "This has become a very serious issue for local authorities. Officials cannot pluck additional resources out of the air and this has to be addressed by central government as a matter of urgency."
