ENGLISH outsiders are among a group of parents being accused of tearing apart a small island community by calling for a ban on teaching in English at a primary school.

Gaelic-language enthusiasts in the Isle of Skye, including “incomers” from England, have been accused of “fascism” after proposing that the school on the Sleat peninsula be made Gaelic-only.

Sleat, known as “the Garden of Skye” for its lush countryside and breathtaking views, has a reputation for being a friendly place where 800 people live in harmony.

“This is a superb community,” said Neil Robertson, 51, whose ten-year-old son is at the school. “But this proposal isn’t just causing simmering anger. It’s more like an open wound. We don’t want to close the door to people who might want to live here by segregating education and limiting choice. We don’t want to be seen as just a quaint Gaelic corner of Skye.”

Although the proposal has only just been put forward for consultation by the Highland Council, already the rows in the local pub have come close to ending in blows. At a meeting ten days ago, about 100 people, not the 15 expected, turned up to express their disapproval.

Bill Fulton, a councillor, said: “I’ve had more than a few phone calls on the issue using words like ‘fascist’ and ‘mafia’.”

Like many schools in the Highlands and Islands, Sleat Primary School, or Bun-Sgoil Shleite, runs a “dual-stream” system, giving parents the option of having their children educated either in Gaelic or in English. Forty-three pupils are taking all their classes in Gaelic and 28 in English.

Donnie MacKinnon, 70, who has spoken Gaelic all his life, said: “It’s the incomers who are behind this, not the locals.” The pensioner, whose eight-year-old grandson is taught in English but speaks Gaelic at home, said that he was “sickened” by the suggestion that children would have to travel 20 miles to a school in the village of Broadford to learn in English.

Emotions have been high since a group of parents discovered last month that Gaelic-language enthusiasts had asked the Highland Council to consult the community about making the school Gaelic-only.

The Comann nam Pàrant (Parents’ Group), led by Murdo Macleod, 41, a teacher at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Sleat, argued that it was impossible for pupils to become fluent unless they underwent “total immersion” — meaning that all school activities had to be in Gaelic.

Lucy Threlfall, 41, who is from Leeds but has lived in Skye for 13 years, has two boys at the school, one taught in Gaelic and the other in English. “I can see both sides,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned the status quo is fine but if it had to be one way or the other I’d be pro-Gaelic. The only way we’re going to keep the language alive is by encouraging it at every opportunity.”

DYING LANGUAGE

• Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig, is spoken in the Scottish Highlands and islands
  
  
• As “the Catholic tongue”, it was suppressed for decades
  
  
• According to the 2001 census, there were 59,000 Gaelic speakers. In 1901 tere were 231,000
  
  
• The stronghold of the language is the Western Isles, where 61 per cent speak it
  
  
• More young people are studying the language as Gaelic culture has become fashionable

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