Meeting of the Parliament 22 September 2015
No. I am in my final minute and I have given way twice—and really, what a total waste of time that was.
We hope that the Government will work with teachers and schools to learn from good practice and ensure that it puts pupils’ needs at the centre of its proposals. In a report, EIS expressed its disappointment at the SQA’s apparent inability to respond appropriately to significant feedback from teachers. That is a matter of deep and on-going frustration for EIS. It is not necessary or helpful for the Government to set a collision course with teachers. Even less helpful is a dictatorial and arrogant approach.
We want every child to get the help that they need when they need it. We want children to perform well in secondary as well as primary education—[Interruption.] I hope that the nationalist members—who are very vocal on the front bench—will understand why the Opposition parties are not exactly overwhelmed with joy at their record. To be honest, I have never seen such long amendments. Most of us could have written about five pages, but that would not have been acceptable to you, Presiding Officer. The amendments are incredible.
As I said to the cabinet secretary at the start, Audit Scotland has done a lot of work on attainment. The Government needs to look at more than deprivation. I also ask the cabinet secretary to examine why pupils who need additional support in English get help for sitting national 5 but no help with national 4. That would be a step in the right direction towards examining attainment levels.
I move amendment S4M-14311.1, to leave out from first “welcomes” to end and insert:
“believes that the journey toward educational success in Scotland has been hampered by Scottish Government policies that have failed to put the appropriate focus on the most pressing issues, specifically the worrying decline in attainment and key skills as measured by the most recent Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy; is concerned that this decline has a greater detrimental effect on the most deprived children, thereby contributing to the unacceptable attainment gap between pupils from poorer and wealthier backgrounds; notes the challenges that have been faced by teachers and pupils during the implementation of the curriculum for excellence as it relates to achieving better qualitative learning outcomes, and condemns the fact that the severe cuts to the college sector, including the loss of 140,000 places and a 12% real-terms budget cut since 2011-12, have had a disproportionate impact on students with caring responsibilities, disabled students and those who are furthest from education and training opportunities.”
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