Davidson pledges a root-and-branch education review
RUTH Davidson is to pledge a review of the SNP’s flagship schools programme as she brands the Government’s record on education a “mark of shame” at the Scottish Conservative Party conference .
John Swinney’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) will be undergo a rootand-branch review to improve it for teachers and pupils, the Tory leader will tell activists on the final day of the event in Glasgow.
Led by the party’s education spokeswoman, Liz Smith MSP, she is expected to consult experts before reporting back by the end of the year.
Ms Davidson does not want to abolish CfE – arguing teachers have had enough reforms imposed on them already – but is seeking ways of making it better.
Party sources said the move also intended to help the Tories’ present themselves as the next party of government.
Intended to be a more holistic approach to learning for three to 18-year-olds, CfE has been criticised for burdening teachers with excess paperwork and not giving pupils basic skills.
After Scotland slipped down international educational league tables last year, Ms Davidson threatened to withdraw Tory support for the policy, which until now has had crossparty backing.
Ms Davidson will say: “This SNP Government’s handling of our education system over the last decade in power has been shameful – and change needs to happen.
“Standards in reading, maths and science are all getting worse according to an international survey. Scotland does not perform above the international average in anything.
“The Sutton Trust, a leading education charity, last month said this: ‘There is no specific area where able children in Scotland really excel.’
“What an absolute disgrace. What a mark of shame. So much for your social justice, Nicola.”
Ms Davidson will not blame teachers, who she will say are doing “fantastic work”, but adds: “No. The blame lies with a school system that, thanks to this SNP Government, simply isn’t working. Here’s the thing though: we can change this.
“We are going to undertake a root-and-branch review of one part of the system that is failing – and that is Curriculum for Excellence.
“We don’t propose scrapping it altogether. But we do have to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy, which has led to this collapse in standards – which thinks of facts and knowledge as of secondary importance, puts the latest fashionable theory before the basic need for a teacher to teach, and which has left a generation of teachers, parents and pupils utterly confused about what is going on, or what Curriculum for Excellence even is.”
Education Secretary John Swinney’s spokesman said: “There already has been an independent review of CfE carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – not a handpicked Tory party commission.”