Now SNP judges exam results - and pupils’ emotions!
CHILDREN will be judged on their ‘emotional development’ as well as exam results as the SNP seeks to close the attainment gap.
The disclosure came as the Scottish Government released figures illustrating the scale of the problem, with poorer youngsters outperformed on a series of measures by peers from better-off areas.
Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to make reducing the attainment gap between the best and worstperforming schools her central mission in office.
But it has taken nearly three years for ministers to consult on yardsticks that will be used to gauge whether it is being closed.
There are no strict targets, with ministers looking instead for systemic change that could take years to achieve rather than fast progress towards fixed goals.
Last night there was concern that the plans would deprive parents of an easy way to judge whether or not Miss Sturgeon’s pledge had been met.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The Scottish Government removed Scotland from some key international measures which assist with attainment analysis, so ministers are a bit stuck. The SNP urgently needs an agreed set of criteria which can be used from now on.’
The Government consultation document states: ‘Social, emotional and behavioural development is considered to be an integral part of achieving good outcomes and the impact of poor early development on later attainment is strong.’
Officials will not start collecting ‘baseline’ information about children’s attainment – to help them make future measurements – until December. But information mainly based on 2015-16 figures showed a gap of 38.5 per cent between the most and least disadvantaged pupils getting at least one Higher – 42.7 per cent among the 20 per cent ‘most deprived’ and 81.2 per cent for the least disadvantaged.
Another yardstick proposed by ministers is literacy at primary level, where there is a 21.4 per cent gap – 58.4 per cent for the most deprived pupils performing to acceptable standards and 79.8 per cent for the least disadvantaged.
Ministers want to use what they call ‘stretch aims’ rather than targets to measure the gap.
The concept of a stretch aim is that it ‘shouldn’t be achievable by hard work alone’ and ‘to have the desired impact there must be a shift in the way activity is delivered’, the Government says.
The consultation states: ‘Stretch aims differ from targets which are very specifically set out to support accountability and scrutiny.’
Education Secretary John Swinney said: ‘I do not believe it is sensible or realistic to assess the performance of our system using a single measure, which is why we already use a number of indicators to monitor progress.
‘This consultation goes further and brings together the most relevant measures, such as early years development and literacy and numeracy, as well as proposing key milestones on the journey towards closing the gap.’
‘Urgently needs agreed criteria’