Swinney: We must do better in our schools
JOHN Swinney has condemned ‘gloomy’ critics of the SNP’s education reforms – but admitted it needs to do more.
The Education Secretary said a pay rise for teachers should lead to better relations between ministers and the profession, creating an opportunity significantly to strengthen Scottish education.
Nicola Sturgeon pledged to make school reforms her main priority after becoming First Minister in 2014, but critics say her Government has failed to make fundamental changes.
At the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association’s annual congress in Crieff, Perthshire, Mr Swinney responded to that, saying: ‘I don’t think we promote the profession with a narrative that suggests everything is gloomy; I think we should strengthen the profession by setting out what it actually achieves.
‘And what the profession today is actually achieving is the best level of positive destinations achieved by young people in the history of our country.
‘Where we need to strengthen our approach is in trusting the profession and its judgment.
‘So I am very keen to work with the profession on encouraging greater professional development and that sense of empowerment and autonomy to make sure that becomes a lived reality in our schools around Scotland. That is a commitment I hope to fulfil.’
But he signalled that the Scottish Government had not fulfilled its aims for educational reform by saying there was a need to ‘deliver more successfully’. He said: ‘Now we have agreed the pay deal, we have a period in sight where, collaboratively, the Government working with local authority partners and our professional associations has an opportunity significantly to strengthen Scottish education and ensure we deliver more successfully on the agenda of excellence and equity.’
Mr Swinney said there was a need to ‘change the narrative’ about failures in state education and highlight successes. But critics say chaotic curricular reform and staff shortages have hampered the drive to bolster classroom standards.
Scottish Government figures for 2018 show 25 per cent of primary pupils failed to achieve the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level for reading and numeracy. In 2017 it was 23 per cent, suggesting performance has deteriorated – though ministers say comparisons are impossible as the data is ‘experimental’.
A quarter of P7 children are failing to achieve expected numeracy levels and only 73 per cent are reaching the standards for writing.
MSPs on the education committee are investigating a decline in the number of subjects pupils study as a result of CfE. Professor Lindsay Paterson, of Edinburgh University, has warned ‘narrowing the curriculum will close the minds of young Scots’.
In 2012, Keir Bloomer, one of the architects of CfE, said the changes, which had never been intended by its designers, would ‘severely limit the option for those who want to study three sciences or several languages’.
Meanwhile, teachers have warned of growing pupil indiscipline and soaring bureaucracy.
Graham Grant – Page 16
‘Deliver more successfully’