Dugdale squares up to unions in education fight
KEZIA DUGDALE, the frontrunner in the Scottish Labour leadership race, has called for a return to national testing in primary schools and a complete overhaul of school inspections in a move that would put her party at odds with teaching unions.
The Lothians MSP used a final campaign speech in Edinburgh to outline radical plans aimed at closing the attainment gap between children from affluent and poorer backgrounds.
Rather than announce the initiatives as part of Scottish Labour’s next election manifesto, she presented them as a “gift” to Nicola Sturgeon and urged the First Minister to “get on with it”.
Under Ms Dugdale’s plans, which will become Scottish Labour policy if she is elected leader on Saturday, the patchwork of P7 tests used by education authorities across Scotland would be replaced by a “national framework”.
She said the use of bought-in standard tests was “inconsistent and inefficient” and claimed unions and other political parties backed standardised testing to improve teaching and drive up standards. However, answering questions after her speech at Edinburgh University, she conceded published data from the tests could be used to compile league tables.
Ms Dugdale’s comments came as the Scottish Conservatives stepped up their call for national tests in primary schools. The party released figures showing Scottish education authorities spent £3.6million over the past three years buying in tests from Durham University and private education companies.
A system of standard tests for five- to 14-year-olds was scrapped in 2003 by Labour’s then education minister, Peter Peacock. The move followed complaints that teachers were “teaching to the tests”.
In May, Nicola Sturgeon refused to rule out a return to standardised tests as part of a new “national performance framework”. Since then, however, Larry Flanagan, the leader of the EIS teaching union, has claimed ministers have reassured him that standardised school testing will not be adopted.
Ms Dugdale also called for all school inspections to be halted for a year to allow the introduction of a new regime measuring work to reduce the attainment gap. She also said help for children in care should be at the heart of the new inspection regime and confirmed she wanted specially qualified teachers working in deprived areas to receive a pay rise.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leadership contender Ken Macintosh said his party had failed to “lay a glove” on the SNP in the past eight years.
The Eastwood MSP also said Labour had been too “loud, shouty and angry”.