| Allan Wilson:
I welcome the
opportunity with which Kenneth Gibson has presented me to respond for the
Executive in this debate. It is an appropriate platform on which to recognise
the excellence of much of Scotland's artistic teaching and many of its
highly talented students.
In reading Mr
Gibson's long motion, and to some extent in listening to members this afternoon,
those of us who knew no better could assume that the teaching of dance
and drama had vanished from Scotland and had somehow been spirited down
south, as students follow the lure of the dance and drama awards scheme.
I see Mr Gibson shaking his head, but he knows that that conclusion could
not be further from the truth.
I am pleased
to tell members that dance and drama tuition is flourishing across Scotland.
Within incorporated colleges across the country, students are involved—at
both further and higher education levels—with a raft of courses covering
many aspects of dance, performance, drama and stage management. In the
1998-99 academic year, 3,932 further education students studied dance and
drama-related subjects in Scottish institutions. Many of those will go
on to successful professional careers.
Mr Gibson: Why
then, on 21 July 2000, did the Scottish Executive write to Ballet West
saying that
"there is no
widespread evidence of demand for post-16 Dance and Drama training in Scotland"?
That is why
the anomalies that have been discussed in the debate have arisen.
Allan Wilson:
That point was raised by Mr Monteith; I will
respond to it in my concluding remarks.
To suggest,
as the motion does, that the Executive's policy discriminates against teaching
centres of excellence is to belittle the achievements of acclaimed Scottish
institutions such as the University of Glasgow, the Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama and Queen Margaret University College. Those teaching
institutions are renowned for their artistic excellence and their alumni
number among them some of our greatest talents. Like many other institutions
across Scotland that run courses of artistic excellence, those teaching
centres of excellence are recognised by the Executive: they are funded
accordingly and their students are supported by the Executive through its
funding bodies. I do not understand how it can be suggested that the Executive
discriminates against teaching centres of excellence for dance and drama.
The basis of
the motion seems to arise not from a concern for the wide spectrum of dance
and drama tuition available in Scotland, as has been mentioned by others,
but from its supporters' concerns for the economic well-being of Ballet
West—a specific private sector dance provider—and its 20 or so student
places.
Mary Scanlon
(Highlands and Islands) (Con): I, too, met
Mike Rowell at a surgery in Oban. He clearly outlined the situation. Is
the minister saying that Ballet West is not an incorporated college? Is
he saying that its degrees and diplomas are not validated along the lines
of the other colleges that he mentioned? As I understand it, Ballet West
fits all the criteria that normally pertain to funding in further and higher
education.
Allan Wilson:
I have said nothing of the sort. I am coming
to private sector provision now.
I welcome the
part that many private sector providers play in the provision of dance
training in Scotland. Mary Scanlon will get no ideological argument with
me on that. I applaud Ballet West for the excellence of its training and
I appreciate its growing reputation in classical ballet training. However,
Ballet West, as a private sector provider, must be responsible for its
own commercial viability—the market should provide.
Linda Fabiani:
rose—
Allan Wilson:
Let me continue. I am sure that I shall come to Linda Fabiani's point.
I recognise
that Ballet West's Scottish students—as Elaine Murray, among others, recognised—remain
dependent on their local authorities for funding support. Although we have
raised the issue of discretionary bursaries with the Convention of Scottish
Local Authorities, I have no powers to direct councils in such matters
and I suspect that Parliament would not welcome any attempts by the Executive
to curtail local discretion. I hope that authorities recognise that they
have significant additional resources and will look at applications positively.
I also hope
that Ballet West—which, by the way, is not incorporated and offers no accredited
courses—can continue to be commercially successful and to play its part
in providing tuition to students of dance. Indeed, I hope that all private
sector providers in Scotland can.
The Executive
is committed, as laid down in its cultural strategy, to the pursuit of
excellence in all forms of art practice in Scotland, as many have recognised.
The Executive recognises the importance of education and training in that
strategy. The motion focuses our attention on dance and dance tuition.
The Executive recognises the point that was made by Richard Simpson and
others that the provision of support to various forms of dance is not,
nor should it be, static. Neither is it perfect. Over time, some dance
forms become more popular and some become less popular. There are important
developments in dance and in our understanding of its role in society.
A recent example is the report on community dance that was produced by
Her Majesty's inspectorate. The provision of training must be sensitive
to those developments. We must ensure that our infrastructure for dance
is in keeping with modern requirements.
Linda Fabiani:
I intervene because I do not know a lot about
this subject and I would appreciate some clarification from the minister.
Is there any establishment for the excellence of ballet, particularly in
the Highlands and Islands, that is funded nationally, apart from the Dance
School of Scotland, which is based at Knightswood Secondary School? I am
talking about 16-year-olds who have shown a wonderful talent, as Richard
Simpson said. We should nurture that talent and export it throughout the
world to show what Scotland is capable of. Is there anywhere that is funded
nationally that pupils over 16 can attend to develop those talents? If
there were, those pupils would not have to leave home and go to other countries
to study.
Allan Wilson:
Linda Fabiani has raised the point that I
was steadily making my way towards in concluding our debate.
Brian Monteith,
Kenny Gibson and others talked about demand. It is difficult to assess
the demand for dance training in Scotland. There is anecdotal evidence
from Ballet West on oversubscribed places, but there is no sector-wide
information on the demand-resource match. Ten further education students
were on the DADA scheme in 1999-2000, although that small number may reflect
the highly competitive nature of the scheme rather than a low Scottish
demand for places.
I have yet to be convinced
that we have a major problem, although I am convinced that a problem exists. As
a direct consequence of today's debate—I am departing from my script, which is
always dangerous—I will discuss the needs of dance with the Scottish Arts
Council. I will mention to my colleague the Deputy Minister for Enterprise and
Lifelong Learning and Gaelic the representations to the Scottish Further
Education Funding Council to which George Lyon, Winnie Ewing and Donald Gorrie,
among others, referred. I will also discuss the implications of those
representations with the appropriate minister.
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