Swinney vows on attainment

JOHN SWINNEY yesterday vowed to “narrow” the curriculum in primary schools to focus more on the three Rs.

Speaking at the EIS conference in Dundee, he announced plans to place more emphasis on core subjects, such as literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

The new Education Secretary also ramped up the SNP offensive on the attainment gap by pledging to eliminate it altogether by 2026.

He raised the stakes by promising teachers there would be no difference in the school performance of those from rich or poor backgrounds within 10 years.

Mr Swinney went further than his party’s manifesto commitment to “substantially eliminate” the attainment gap during his speech to Scotland’s largest teachers’ union.

He said the First Minister had told him that the “objective over a 10-year period is to eliminate the attainment gap in Scottish school education and over the next five years to make discernible progress on closing that gap”.

“That is exactly what my mandate is to do and that will be my driving ambition,” he added.

Asked in a press briefing if the aim had changed since the manifesto launch, he said: “Let’s go into this boldly to close the attainment gap in Scottish education.”

Mr Swinney said he would need to “liberate” teachers across primary and secondary schools from administration and bureaucracy to achieve that.

To loud support from teachers, he said he would be listening to the profession to see how that could be achieved, paving the way for some elements of the curriculum to be cut or reformed.

He said: “That is the way personally my mind is thinking on these issues that if we are going to focus then we need to recognise that there has to be reform and changes in the system to enable that to happen.”

John Swinney and his boss Ms Sturgeon are staking their reputations on their “ultimate aim” of getting rid of the attainment gap.

One of his first jobs in post was to defend figures which showed the number of P4 pupils hitting key numeracy levels has fallen for the third time in a row amid a widening attainment gap in some areas.