Meeting of the Parliament 28 June 2017
Before I tempt the cabinet secretary into his usual tired and tedious tirade about us never supporting anything he does—and I will—let me establish some common ground.
Mr Swinney has made it plain that, in our schools, the status quo is not an option and change must come. He is right, because with 4,000 fewer teachers, 1,000 fewer support staff, 700 unfilled vacancies, attainment in literacy, numeracy and science declining, fewer school leavers going on to a positive destination and teachers about to ballot for industrial action, something has to change.
However, it is not the case that any change will do. The imperative is not reform for reform’s sake, but the right reforms for our future’s sake. Some of the reforms in the document “Education Governance: Next Steps” are welcome. We have always supported the pupil equity fund—after all, it is indistinguishable from the fair start funding that we proposed in our manifesto last year. Managed and delivered properly, it has the potential to be transformational.
In our manifesto, a year ago, we also proposed a new, improved chartered teacher scheme. New career progression for classroom teachers is a good thing too. The idea of home link workers is a good one, although I hope that the way in which it is formulated—the reference is to “access to”—does not mean that there will not be enough of them to go round to make the difference that they could make.
The main thrust of the Government’s reforms is a structural reorganisation of how schools are run. That has been characterised by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities as a power grab, by TES as the “Great Governance Guddle”, and by Keir Bloomer as
“authoritarian, unwanted, bureaucratic and hierarchical”
with dysfunction built in.
The cabinet secretary has not taken all that lying down. He has rushed to his plan’s defence, scatter-bombing op eds across Saturday’s papers with Stakhanovite diligence. My favourite passage is this one:
“we 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.”
Presiding Officer, I choked on my cornflakes. Was that ironic or was it just taking the mickey? Everyone who is involved in education has told the cabinet secretary that he is barking up the wrong tree.