Taking office last May as Minister for Learning, with responsibility for Gaelic and Scots gave me an excellent opportunity to turn many years of personal interest in the languages into being a part of ensuring they have a vibrant future.

And I believe 2011 has been a landmark year for Scotland’s languages.

August saw the publication of overwhelmingly positive research which gave public backing to the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring more people in Scotland are able to speak the language.

With 81% of the Scottish public believing it is important that Scotland does not lose its Gaelic language traditions, 70% thought there should be more opportunities to learn Gaelic.

This is good news for Scotland’s languages, clearly the public recognise that we have a responsibility, unique on this planet, to preserve and promote our native languages. I take this responsibility very seriously.

The draft National Plan for Gaelic, published by Bord na Gàidhlig in October will open up further opportunities to encourage our language to flourish. There are still a few days of the consultation on the draft Plan left and I would encourage those with an interest in the language to take the time to give the Bord their views which will help shape the final version of the Plan that will publish later this year.

The Plan’s launch and another successful Mòd, held this year in the Western Isles, saw an overwhelmingly positive profile for Gaelic and I am optimistic that 2012 will see this theme continue as we seek to push on with keeping Gaelic alive for generations to come.

On Scots, of which I am also a speaker, we have been making progress with the Scots Language Working Group recommendations on education, the arts and broadcasting. Looking forward, a key task will be to establish a Network of Scots Language Co-ordinators which I see as having a very important role in helping to support and promote the language in our schools.

I am also pleased to say that in a tight spending review, we have been able to maintain funding to Scots bodies which do much to support the language. And for the first time, a question on Scots was included in the Census and I’m looking forward to seeing the results next year!

In uniting our approach to both Gaelic and Scots, we are taking action to establish further understanding of how Scotland’s languages have helped shaped this country’s identity into the school curriculum as part of our work on Scottish Studies. You can expect to here more about this work over the course of the year.

So as we move into 2012, this will no doubt be an exciting year for Scotland’s languages and I am very proud to be at the heart of work on both. I wish you a Happy New Year!

Dr Alasdair Allan,
Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages.

New Year’s Message 2012 – Scots version.
New Year’s Message 2012 – Gaelic version.