Future of Bagpipes Under Threat

[imrichmond]

I read this article in The Scotsman. It strikes me as a gross exaggeration, especially the "shock" headline. The bagpipe is certainly not threatened with extinction. In reality, piping has never been so popular as it is today. There are more highland bagpipers today than there have been at any other time in history. To my knowledge, bagpiping has never been a significant part of the Scottish school system, except in a few private schools like Dollar Academy and George Watson's, among others. Yet Scotland has an abundance of youth-oriented pipe bands. For a child who wants to learn piping or pipe band drumming there is certainly no lack of opportunity. Most pipe bands, for example, have teaching programmes at little or no cost to the learner. This is not to say that it wouldn't be nice to have programmes in all the schools, but I doubt that Scottish taxpayers would be keen on paying the considerable cost.