Labour oppose plans for Scots ‘teach first’ scheme
North Ayrshire Council has voted to oppose controversial education reforms in its schools, which includes Arran High School.
Last week’s council cabinet meeting passed two motions by the ruling Labour group on the Scottish government’s educational governance review and their plans for a Scottish ‘teach first’ scheme.
Speaking on the reforms, Labour’s John Bell, the council’s cabinet member for education, said: ‘The deputy first minister has completely ignored the views expressed by experts, teachers and unions during his consultation and is pushing ahead with his wrongheaded reforms.
‘The Scottish Government’s own report says that changing the governance system will not improve education but makes it clear that respondents stressed that austerity was the issue that needs to be addressed. There is nothing in these reforms that will address the issue of edu- cation funding. Our head teachers face being landed with a huge amount of new responsibilities, including hiring and firing staff and being responsible for the attainment gap, without the central support from the local authority that they currently enjoy.
‘These reforms will remove local democratic accountability. They have been labelled ‘Thatcherite’ because of their similarities to reforms undertaken by the Thatcher government and are being supported by Tory MSPs. I am pleased North Ayrshire Council has voted against the plans and I look forward to making the positive case for keeping our schools local.’
The second motion on ‘teach first’ passed following concerns about having less qualified teachers in Scottish schools.
Speaking on the motion, Councillor Robert Foster, who seconded Labour’s motion, said: ‘Teach First is a Tory scheme and Ruth Davidson has been calling for its introduction in Scotland for some time. I am shocked and disappointed that the SNP plan to oblige.
‘North Ayrshire Council has voted to value the work our teachers do in our classrooms. We want to support them doing that not water down our teaching system by lowering the training standards.’
The Scottish government carried out the Education Governance Review consultation over six months last year and published their analysis last month.
At the time deputy first minister John Swinney said: ‘We are determined to create an education system which ensures that every child achieves the highest standards in literacy and numeracy, with the right range of skills, qualifications and achievements to enable them to seize the opportunity to succeed. Current evidence shows while our system has many strengths there are also weaknesses and we must improve performance.’