Meeting of the Parliament 12 January 2016
It is a pleasure to open the debate, particularly at the start of a new and exciting year for education in Scotland. Just six days ago, at the international congress for school effectiveness and improvement in Glasgow, the First Minister launched the national improvement framework, and four weeks ago, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published its review of our progress with curriculum for excellence.
We are extremely grateful to the OECD review team for its thoughtful and comprehensive report, entitled “Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective”. We very much welcome the report and its 12 recommendations, which provide us with a strong platform to help us to reach our goal of an excellent and equitable system in which every young person is able to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or needs.
It is important to reflect on the many strengths that the report highlights about curriculum for excellence. For example, it states:
“The Curriculum for Excellence ... is an important reform to put in place a coherent 3-18 curriculum”,
which rests on
“widely-accepted tenets of what makes for powerful learning.”
The deputy director of the OECD’s directorate for education and skills, Montserrat Gomendio, said:
“We applaud Scotland for having the foresight and patience to put such an ambitious reform as Curriculum for Excellence in place”.
The OECD report notes a picture of
“positive attitudes, engagement and motivation, partnerships outside the school, supportive ethos and teamwork”,
and notes that
“learners are enthusiastic and motivated, teachers are engaged and professional, and system leaders are highly committed.”
I am particularly heartened by the OECD’s findings that our education is inclusive and that our children are resilient. That is exactly what curriculum for excellence is designed to foster. I assure members that our response to those endorsements, and to all the recommendations, will be bold, focused and resolute.
What parents and other family members around the country will recognise above all is that schools are completely different now from what they were when those people were at school, whether that be 10 or 20 years ago. In my many visits to schools, I am always struck by how confident, articulate and enthusiastic our children and young people are and by how they really own their learning. That is due in part to the freedom that schools have, under curriculum for excellence, to adopt a curriculum that is relevant to learners’ needs and to local contexts and settings and which builds on teachers’ expertise and talents as well as on learners’ interests.
Curriculum for excellence has given us a broader, more flexible and child-focused curriculum, and it will ensure that young people have the opportunity to develop the right range of skills, qualifications and achievements to allow them to flourish. Learning at school is now exciting, stimulating, lively and—crucially—fun. Children are highly motivated and enthusiastic, and teachers are professional, engaged and committed, and all of that is delivering higher standards of achievement.
Last year, there was a record number of passes at higher and advanced higher, and more young people received qualifications that relate to wider skills for life and work. More students are staying on at school until sixth year, fewer are leaving with very low or no qualifications, and all young people can now undertake relevant, work-related learning as part of their curriculum. More than nine out of 10 of last year’s school leavers are now in employment, education or training nine months after leaving school.