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377. The Education Reform Act 1988 provides a statutory place for Welsh in the curriculum of schools in Wales. This provision will be an essential building block in the future development of the language through school and on to later life.
378. The direct financial support offered in 1989/90 by the Secretary of State for Wales totals £4,600,000. This is divided between allocations under section 21 of the Education Act 1980 and section 26 of the Development of Rural Wales Act 1976. This is in addition to the significant expenditure by local education authorities, arts and cultural organizations and the Fourth Television Channel (S4C) in Wales.
Gaelic
379. The Government is ensuring that the Gaelic language in Scotland is increasingly protected and developed. In 1989/90, Government funding of Gaelic organizations totals £300,000, with a further £850,000 payable to Scottish local authorities under the specific grant scheme for Gaelic education. This scheme was introduced in 1986/87 and has been an outstanding success, with an increasing variety of projects, including the preparation of a Gaelic data base and the development of initiatives in community education and the arts. A notable development in this scheme has been an increase in the number of Gaelic medium primary units in schools, from 12 to 20 in the last year.
Irish
380. The Government recognizes and respects the special importance of the Irish language to a significant number of people in Northern Ireland. Progress has been made in several areas: the Government is funding research on Irish place-names and has carried out research on the numbers of Irish-speakers in Northern Ireland; it has increased financial support for Irish language cultural activities; and an Irish language map and gazetteer has been published.
381. Under proposals for educational reform, pupils in Northern Ireland will be required to choose at secondary level to study one or more of the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian or Irish; they will thus be able to take Irish instead of one of the major European Community languages. The Government is seeking to promote a more constructive debate about cultural diversity in Northern Ireland, including the contribution which the Irish language makes to Northern Ireland's rich cultural heritage.