Finland has an obsession with the Latin language, as this BBC article shows.

The government is earmarking £400,000 to help schools teaching more foreign pupils as a result of EU expansion. About 10% of pupils in England are learning English as a second language. Read the full story on the BBC website.

Opponents of proposals to create the Highlands and Islands’ first dedicated Gaelic primary on Skye are attempting to have the plans put on hold. Read the article on the BBC website for more information.

A PLAN to establish Scotland’s first English department within a school dedicated to providing education through the medium of Gaelic will be discussed in the Highlands today. A dedicated Gaelic school already exists in Glasgow and one is being built in Inverness. But the proposal for Sleat in Skye would be the first Gaelic school […]

Pupils will soon be able to sit Scotland’s first exams in Mandarin, The Herald can reveal. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has set up a steering group to develop the qualifications and hopes to have them in place for the 2009 diet. It is understood the courses will also explore the cultural significance of China […]

More than 12,000 hours of archive recordings in Gaelic and Scots are to be made available online. The new digital archive, ‘Tobar an Dualchais’ or ‘Kist o Riches’, is to contain stories, conversations and songs recorded over the past 80 years.
The £3m project will bring together material held by the School of Scottish Studies […]

Plans to teach English to pupils in India’s call-centre hub of Bangalore have infuriated language activists. Read the full story on the BBC website.

The government has announced a review of its strategy on teaching modern foreign languages in England’s schools, says this BBC article. There has been widespread concern since language learning was made optional past the age of 14 - triggering a rapid drop in the numbers taking GCSEs.
Education Secretary Alan Johnson said during education questions […]

Modern foreign languages could be the next GSCE subject to be entirely ‘e-assessed’ following the launch yesterday of the first science course to be fully tested online. Read more in the Education Guardian article.

Whoever said Latin was a dead language never shopped at Morrisons. To the delight of classicists everywhere, the supermarket chain announced yesterday that it is to include the Latin binomial nomenclature on the packaging of all fish it sells. Read the Herald article for more information.