Education leader denounces ‘lunacy’ of teacher workload

Curriculum for Excellence architect calls for overhaul of system

One of the architects of the Curriculum for Excellence has claimed it is being hampered by the “lunacy” of red tape.

Keir Bloomer said the roll- out of the new programme, which he helped design in the early 2000s, was about giving teachers more time to enable pupils to truly understand their subjects.

But he said teachers had been over-

“No one knows what progress has been made through CfE”

loaded with “near incomprehensible” guidance.

He told MSPs yesterday: “You cannot really get depth in learning unless the time and space is available for it and that is dependent upon the original intention of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which is to de-clutter.”

He referred to an analysis of the Curriculum for Excellence guidance, which included the setting of “1,820 experiences and outcomes” that teachers must follow. He said: “Now that is self-evident lunacy.”

Education Secretary John Swinney has already pledged to cut teachers’ workload, following complaints that the profession has been overburdened by bureaucracy as Curriculum for Excellence has been rolled out.

Plans include scrapping some unit assessments which are marked by teachers before pupils sit their exams, and “empowering” teachers over how schools are run.

Mr Bloomer, who is convener of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s education committee, said he is pleasedMr Swinney “is determined to do something about it”. The former chief executive at Clackmannanshire Council said no one knows what progress has been made in education through CfE because “no serious attempt has been made to evaluate it”. He added: “This is the most significant development that has taken place in Scottish education since the war and no evaluation system was set up at the outset.

“Successivegovernments have made claims of success in relation to Curriculum for Excellence and, to be honest with you, they are based on no evidence whatsoever.”

RED PEN DAY: Keir Bloomer has called for reform to give teachers time and space