SNP making ‘mess of new curriculum’
ONE of the key architects of the Curriculum for Excellence has condemned the SNP for making a ‘mess’ of its implementation.
Keir Bloomer spoke out after it emerged pupils are having to choose between fewer subjects in the latter stages of secondary school.
Education Secretary John Swinney claimed the CfE deliberately offers fewer options to S4 pupils, telling MSPs last week that ‘there is little value in simply accumulating qualifications at lower levels for their own sake’.
But former council education director Mr Bloomer told the Scottish Daily Mail: ‘This is a mess and they don’t accept responsibility for it or do anything about it.’
Last week a Tory motion, amended by the Scottish Government and Labour, was unanimously backed by MSPs, ‘noting with concern evidence that shows that, for a substantial number of schools across Scotland, subject choice for S4 pupils has been reduced’.
Mr Bloomer, former education director and chief executive at Clackmannanshire Council, said Mr Swinney believed ‘it doesn’t matter because you have to see the whole senior phase (S4-6) as a single flexible experience and that what matters is the qualifications young people have when they leave school’.
But he added: ‘The problem with John Swinney’s position is that change in the senior phase as it is actually being experienced by pupils is slow. There is much less flexibility than he would like to believe.
‘In any event, this is not a justification for reducing the number of subjects in S4.
‘The young people who are able and do well in S5 and S6
‘This impacts on everyone’
are not being disadvantaged. It is the ones who leave in S4 less well qualified than they would have been in the past.
‘The new restrictions are widening the gap. Some schools have kept to eight subjects rather than going down to six. They are doing at least as well as the schools doing six. In short, there is no evidence to support the Government’s position.’
Last week Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘This impacts on everyone, but particularly those who want to leave school at the end of S4 or S5 who will now do so with fewer qualifications.
‘There is a marked effect on many young people attending schools in disadvantaged communities, something about which we should all be very concerned.’
Mr Swinney claimed the reduction in S4 subjects was part of the redesign of the curriculum, adding: ‘Far from this being an unintended consequence, it was an entirely deliberate outcome of redesigning the senior phase.’
Responding to Mr Bloomer’s criticism, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The proportion of young people in the most deprived areas getting one or more qualifications is increasing faster than those in the least deprived areas.
‘There has been a 13 per cent increase in the number of Scots from the most deprived communities getting places to study at a Scottish university.
‘More school leavers than ever are going on to work, training and education. This shows that, far from a reduction, our schools are delivering real improvements in the qualifications pupils achieve.’