Meeting of the Parliament 29 October 2015
The Education (Scotland) Bill brings forward a range of measures that are designed to drive improvements across our education system.
I very much welcome the Education and Culture Committee’s report on the bill and its support for the bill’s general principles. The report is fair and balanced, and it helpfully identifies a number of areas in which we can look to improve the bill at stages 2 and 3.
Education is at the heart of this Government’s plans. The objective of improving school attainment is arguably the single most important one in our programme for government. Improving attainment overall and closing the gap between children in our most deprived areas and those in our least deprived areas is fundamental to our aim of making Scotland fairer and more prosperous. The bill has a key role to play. It sends a strong signal, nationally as well as locally, about the value that we place on ensuring that all our children and young people receive the best education that they can receive and achieve their full potential.
We have a lot to be proud of in Scottish education, and we should all celebrate the achievements of our children and young people. However, more needs to be done if we are to realise our ambition of a more socially just Scotland. We must build on success and ensure that every child and young person, regardless of their background, has a fair chance to pursue their dreams and achieve success.
We owe it to those children and young people to rise to the challenge of the inequalities that exist in our education system. Part 1 of the bill proposes that councils and the Scottish ministers prioritise reducing the inequalities of outcome that are associated with socioeconomic disadvantage when they take strategic decisions relating to education. By strategic decisions, I mean the key, high-level decisions that determine how education services are delivered over a prolonged period. Such decisions relate to matters ranging from budget setting and the identification of measures for assessing progress within and across schools to the development of the school estate. Although such decisions are strategic in nature, they clearly have an impact on the day-to-day experiences of our children and young people—that is exactly what we hope to achieve.
The duty is designed to enhance the existing framework within which ministers and councils operate. We recognise the need to set the specific requirements of the duty alongside the range of other legal requirements that exist. Statutory guidance under the bill will support councils in carrying out their new duties.
It is right to focus on tackling socioeconomic disadvantage at this point. However, the bill will allow us to extend the duty to other groups of children and young people in future, if that is considered appropriate.