The seminar on bilingualism held last month by the Royal Society of Arts heard of a Glasgow study involving youngsters whose first language was not English.
The challenge for the researchers was how to rate success, and it was decided that this should be on a scale of zero to very good. Ah, but what did very good mean, somebody asked? One enlightened soul chipped in with the suggestion that a very good command of English should be defined as “speaking it like a native Glaswegian”.
Quorate?
There are no educational arguments for closing the two-pupil secondary school on the Shetland island of Skerries, the chairman of the local community council has declared. Numerical arguments perhaps?