Every pupil has the right to learn a foreign language up to Standard Grade level. The ability to speak another language is important in many areas of business and commerce. This course is ideal for those who already are Urdu speakers but is also open to beginners.

There are four main elements in this course –

• Reading: developing the ability to read Urdu text through a variety of exercises, such as reading signs, notices, magazine articles, advertisements, plays and texts.
• Speaking: learning to communicate in Urdu in every day situations.
• Listening: learning to listen to and understand examples of Urdu text or dialogue, read on tape by native speakers, the teacher or other students.
• Writing: building on the other skills by learning to write answers and passages in Urdu.

This course does not lead to the attainment of any core skills.

Urdu is assessed at Foundation, General and Credit levels. At every level assessment of all four skills - Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking - is compulsory.

• Reading and Listening are assessed by an external examination, set and marked by the SQA.
• Writing is performed internally under controlled conditions but marked externally.
• Speaking is assessed in school by the teacher but passed to external examiners for verification.

In the calculation of the overall award, Speaking and Reading are given twice as much weight as Writing and Listening.