£60k bill for 4-page report on education

JOHN Swinney flew education experts to Scotland at a cost to taxpayers of more than £60,000 – to produce a four-page report.

The ten-person group, including academics from Canada and Malaysia, was appointed by the Scottish Government in 2016.

Their first trip, last August, cost £36,500 in travel, hotel and hospitality costs. The group stayed at Edinburgh’s five-star Sheraton Grand hotel. Their second trip, in February, ran up a £24,500 bill.

But the long-awaited report by the International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA) is only four pages, fewer than 1,200 words, including a cover, with no findings or analysis.

Part of one page is dominated by a confusing graphic supposedly detailing the ‘moral narrative’ of the education system. The few conclusions offered were critical of SNP education reforms.

Last night, Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The Curriculum for Excellence is ill-defined and its delivery under the SNP has been a complete mess.

‘Addressing this issue must surely be the priority of the ICEA.

‘The council needs to produce much more detail about what improvements have to be made and make recommendations about the timescale in which parents can expect to see better results.’

Among only four recommendations was a suggestion to boost pay for headteachers, create ‘chief executives’ to lead several schools and improve evidence about educational techniques.

Despite Education Secretary Mr Swinney confirming a large-scale structural overhaul of education, the group warned against ‘becoming too focused on changing the structure of the system when, arguably, the more important aspects are the culture and capacity within the system’.

Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘The SNP minister’s advisers are telling him he is barking up the wrong tree with his governance “reforms” – and that the real problem is there are not enough teachers with enough support and enough time to teach.’

Mr Swinney previously insisted the advisers would help to drive up standards in schools.

The experts are to report more formally next year, the report said, although by then many planned changes will be well advanced.

Scottish Green education spokesman Ross Greer said: ‘We already know from the Scottish Government’s own consultation that teachers, support staff and other education experts do not see the need for the widespread governance reforms that are being driven through.’

The Scottish Government said: ‘Advice from the ICEA has been clear – to improve our education system we must tackle culture, capacity and structure. This “next steps” paper addresses all three.’

The row comes after damning research this week showed that Scottish children are falling behind those in the rest of the UK.

‘Barking up the wrong tree’