Does this mean bagpipes are dying out in Scotland?

It might be the national instrument, but less than a quarter of Scotland's state schools give pupils the chance to learn the bagpipes, according to new figures published this week.

In some parts of Scotland, schoolchildren are not offered any bagpiping lessons at all, while in other areas every school gives them the option to learn it, the statistics revealed. The national average across both primary and secondary schools stands at 24 per cent.

Mary Scanlon, the education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, which obtained the figures through a series of Freedom of Information requests, said:

In many areas across Scotland, it means parents will have to pay for expensive private lessons if they want their child to play the bagpipes, and not everyone will be able to do that.