Scotland

C

Religion

The Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian (Protestant) denomination, is the official Church, with an adult communicant membership of around 600,000. The Roman Catholic Church is also important with some 650,000 adherents. Other leading denominations are the Episcopal Church of Scotland, a province of the Anglican Church, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist, and United Free, as well as a number of small Presbyterian Churches, which in the past formed as breakaway groups from the Church of Scotland. There are signficant numbers of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews in the cities.

English is the official language, and according to the 2001 census 58,650 Scots (mainly inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides) also speak the Scottish form of Gaelic. This represents a fall of 10 per cent in the ten-year period between censuses. Efforts to increase understanding of Gaelic language and culture include Gaelic-language television programmes. See Celtic Languages: Scottish Gaelic.

D

Education

Education in Scotland is administered by the Education Department of the Scottish Executive and by local education authorities. Scotland’s education system is independent of that of England and Wales and different in structure. The Scots have traditionally assigned great importance to education, and the voluntary schools system grew vigorously during the 19th century. In 1872 the responsibility for education was transferred from Churches to elected school boards, which provided education for children aged 5 to 13. In 1901 the school leaving age was raised to 14, 17 years before this happened in England and Wales. In 1918 local education authorities, or LEAs, were established to replace school boards and the provision of secondary education was made mandatory. The Education Act (Scotland) 1945 applied the same provisions as the Education Act 1944 in England and Wales (see also United Kingdom: Education) but involved fewer changes as most of the innovations had already been made. The school-leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947, and to 16 in the 1972-1973 school year.

However, the Education Reform Act introduced by the Conservative government in 1988, initiated the most fundamental changes in the education system of Scotland, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, since 1945. Its provisions dramatically reduced the powers of the LEAs, giving individual schools control over their own budgets, and allowing schools to apply to opt out of LEA control and receive grant-maintained (GM) status.

Devolved management of schools was introduced in Scotland in 1996. All state-funded secondary schools in England, Wales, and Scotland can obtain GM status if parents support the idea in a ballot and the Secretary of State approves the school’s proposals. GM schools are completely self-governing and independent of LEAs, receiving their funds directly from central government.

Scotland does not have a statutory national curriculum, as introduced in the rest of the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, although moves have been made to standardize curriculum content via A Curriculum for Excellence, and testing of progress in English and mathematics has been introduced. Pupils begin their secondary schooling at around 12 years and spend four compulsory years in the secondary system (S1, S2, S3, S4). National Qualifications are administered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). Pupils take the Standard Grade at the end of their fourth year of secondary education (S4/age 16). There are three levels of study (foundation, general, and credit). In addition there are National Courses and National Units. The Higher Grades, known as “Highers”, and Advanced Highers are taken in the fifth and sixth years (S5 and S6) and are the stepping stone to university entrance. In 2007 there were 2,755 state schools in Scotland with a school roll of more than 700,000 pupils.

D

1

Universities and Colleges

Scotland has about 70 institutions providing programmes of study beyond the secondary level for those students who do not go on to the universities. These include colleges of agriculture, art, commerce, and science. There are six teacher-training colleges, with approximately 5,700 students. Scotland has 14 universities. Of the universities in Scotland, the oldest (University of Aberdeen, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, and University of St Andrews) were founded in the 15th and 16th centuries. Four more received their charters between 1960 and 1990: Dundee University, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), Stirling University, and Strathclyde University (Glasgow). More recent additions include the University of Abertay Dundee, Glasgow Caledonian University, Napier University (Edinburgh), University of Paisley, Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh), and The Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen), as well as the Open University for Scotland. Total enrolment in higher education in Scotland stood at 276,705 in the academic year 2004-2005.

E

Culture

Clans, the traditional keystone of Scottish society, are no longer politically powerful but maintain a symbolic importance. Originally, the clan, a grouping of an entire family with one head, or laird, was also important as a fighting unit. The solidarity associated with clan membership has been expanded into a strong national pride. The work ethic and puritanism of Scottish Presbyterianism, which is traceable to John Knox, the 16th-century religious reformer and statesman, also retains a strong influence in parts of the country.

Popular indigenous sports include football, curling, and golf. Bagpipes, usually associated with Scottish music, were probably introduced by the Romans, who acquired them in the Middle East. Scottish music is noted for the wide use of a five-tone, or pentatonic, scale. Folk tunes are not standardized, and a single song may have hundreds of variations in lyrics and music. The country also has a strong indigenous dance and storytelling tradition. The country hosts two of the United Kingdom’s, and the world’s, premier arts festivals, the Edinburgh International Festival (the world’s largest arts festival), and Glasgow’s Mayfest. In the contemporary arts, Scotland has noted museums, galleries, and orchestras, and national ballet and opera companies. See also Celtic Art; Celtic Mythology; National Galleries of Scotland; National Library of Scotland; Scottish Ballet, The; Scottish Colourists; Scottish Dancing; Scottish Literature; and Scottish Opera.

IV

Economy

Many aspects of the economy of Scotland are covered in the article United Kingdom. The currency of the United Kingdom, the pound sterling, is the legal tender of Scotland but the country can also issue its own banknotes; Scotland has retained a £1 banknote. Both agriculture and industry are important in the economy of Scotland, but the main growth sector has been the services industries in recent years. The chief exports are oil and natural gas, chemicals, and manufactured goods, especially whisky, electronics equipment, clothing, machinery, and textiles. Scotland has experienced the same pressure on its traditional industries, particularly shipbuilding, as Wales and the north of England. However, since 1987 economic growth in Scotland has on average been greater than in the United Kingdom as a whole, and it was less affected by the recession in the early 1990s than other areas. In part this has been a consequence of the new jobs and industries created by North Sea oil, and in part a result of Scotland’s success in attracting high-technology industries to a region between Edinburgh and Glasgow that has been dubbed Silicon Glen. The centre of Scottish trade unionism is the Scottish Trades Union Congress, with an affiliated membership of around 630,000.