Powers in hands of headteachers
Just after the General Election, I published the Scottish Government’s next proposals to reform our education system. I enjoyed telling commentators that we had clearly been doing the“day job”by developing such detailed and comprehensive proposals!
Scotland’s education system has many strengths. More of our young people are getting excellent exam results and going on to a job, training or more education.
But recent international rankings and literacy scores show we need to do more to raise attainment for all and close the poverty-related attainment gap.
That is why I believe we need to make changes to the way schools are run in Scotland giving much more flexibility and control to our schools.
A simple, powerful idea is driving these changes – we are putting more power and money in the hands of schools and teachers.
It means decisions about the learning of young people being made by the people who know them best – their parents, teachers, school and young people themselves.
International evidence shows that this approach works. And I have seen it for myself with the additional money from Pupil Equity Funding that the Scottish Government is giving directly to schools to close the attainment gap.
Teachers and headteachers will lead the changes in our classrooms. They are the ones with the right knowledge to make a real difference.
Schools will lead, but we are putting in place three elements of the right support to make sure they can succeed.
The first focuses on teachers.
Teaching is a hugely rewarding career and we want to attract more people into the profession. We want to make sure more teachers are able to specialise and we want to create the space and the time for teachers to significantly develop their skills.
The second step is how we will support improvement in our education system.
We know that teachers want to constantly improve, for the simple reason of wanting to do better for our children.
To help them do that we will set up new Regional Improvement Collaboratives, so that schools can pool resources and learn from each other about what works and what doesn’t.
The third aspect is making sure local councils support their area’s schooling.
Councils will have responsibility for important education support services, including the number and catchment areas of schools, recruiting excellent headteachers, and HR and other support services.
This is a crucial role for councils to make sure they remain democratically accountable for the leadership of schools.
These are major reforms which will significantly change, and improve, Scotland’s education system. But they cannot be delivered by the Government alone.
To deliver real and lasting change we will need to work with everyone involved in Scottish education and we will continue to listen to what they have to say at every step along the way. What we want is simple. We will free our teachers to teach. We will put new powers in the hands of our headteachers. We will ensure that parents, families and communities play a bigger role in school life and in their children’s learning.
And we will all – government, councils, and agencies - support our schools to do what they do best: transform the life chances of our children.