Executive aims at 100,000 Gaelic speakers by 2041 in flagship strategy to save the Gaelic language.

THE Scottish Executive's flagship strategy for saving the Gaelic language in a modern, multilingual Scotland was published yesterday with a target of 100,000 speakers by 2041, an increase of more than 70%.

The strategy is designed to "move the Gaelic community from a world where it feels the burdens of the past to a world where it proclaims the future".

To do so the National Plan for Gaelic provides government, local authorities, public bodies and the private and voluntary sectors with a five-year road map to take the language forward in face of its chronic fragility.

It recognises the biggest challenge is the continuing decline in the number of people who speak Gaelic. In 1881, there were more than a quarter of a million in Scotland, almost 7% of the population. In the 2001 Census there were 58,652 or 1.2% of the population.

The plan concentrates on promoting and developing the language to encourage people to learn and use it, in addition to ways of enhancing its status.

So the Bord na Gaidhlig, the body created to enforce the Scottish Executive's Gaelic Language Act and which produced the national plan, will open a national publicity campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Gaelic, establish a funding scheme to provide support for those seeking to improve their Gaelic language skills, and introduce an annual awards programme that will recognise achievement in the acquisition and use of Gaelic in the home, community and workplace.

It will issue notices to about 10 relevant public authorities a year requiring the preparation of Gaelic language plans for use in their operation (ferry company Caledonian MacBrayne has just completed its plan). In addition, it will work with employers to promote the use of Gaelic in the workplace. It will provide Gaelic planning advice and examples of good practice and launch a campaign to promote the use of Gaelic in the home.

The strategy recognises that Gaelic education in Scotland has been a success story - from a standing start in 1985 to Gaelic-medium provision in 62 primary schools and 36-37 Gaelic-medium secondary departments in 2006-07.

The bord will also open a review of Gaelic childcare and early years provision. Efforts to increase supply of Gaelic teachers will continue.

Matthew MacIver, chairman of Bord na Gaidhlig and architect of the "historic" national plan, said it signalled the emergence of a new world for Gaelic.

He argued that the survival of the language was crucial to the social health of modern Scotland: "The ability to share another outlook on the world, through other forms of thought, literature and lexical usage is one which can only enhance tolerant relationships between different cultural groups," he said.

Alex MacDonald, convener of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) welcomed the plan, "as a symbolic milestone in the revitalisation of Gaelic."