Renfrewshire Council spends £130,000 transporting pupils to Gaelic lessons in other authorities

This year, more than £130,000 has been spent on transporting children and young people out of Renfrewshire for Gaelic-medium education.

A total of 25 pupils – eight in primary six and seven and 17 in a secondary setting – have their travel to Glasgow or Inverclyde covered by the council.

A paper to the education and children’s services policy board on Thursday confirmed this was carried out at a cost of approximately £132,808 for 2024/25.

Councillor Gillian Graham, Labour group education spokesperson, said her “jaw dropped” when she saw the figure – one which she described as “an awful lot of money”.

She said: “When we have 34% of mainstream pupils with additional support needs and the Scottish Government is reducing the Scottish equity funding, I do think anybody reading that is going to think, ‘Are we paying £133,000 to bus pupils out of Renfrewshire? Are you kidding?’

“It’s discretionary at this point, I know in the future there’s a bill round the corner, but many people are going to look at that and say that it’s an awful lot of money.”

The local authority is trying to grow its Gaelic medium education in Renfrewshire, including the prospect of introducing early years provision and exploring options for secondary provision.

The Gaelic unit, housed at West Primary School in Paisley, opened to pupils in primary one to three in August 2022 but has since extended to include primaries four and five in 2024/25 as participating children have grown older.

The programme, which has 13 pupils, is said to be “growing year on year” with another nine registered for 2025/26.

Currently in primary five, two pupils are due to start high school in August 2027 and could also be transported to other councils.

However, the local authority will continue to examine secondary provision and liaise with parents to support pupils’ effective transition.

Responding to councillor Graham, Gerard McLaughlin, head of education, said: “You’re absolutely right. Why would we want to waste money on transporting children when we can keep them within our own council?”

However, SNP council leader Iain Nicolson took issue with the way councillor Graham had raised the issue in her comments.

He said: “I have to disagree with the officer when he says that Councillor Graham is ‘absolutely right’.

“She’s not absolutely right because she didn’t have to pit one cultural group against another – ASN [additional support needs] children – to make her point.

“If her point was about saving money on transport costs, that would have been fine, but it was a thinly-veiled disguise to have a go at people who want to learn Gaelic, at the cost of it all.”