Meeting of the Parliament 12 January 2016
I have given way to the minister once already.
Dr Scott is very clear on who is suffering. He said that
“less able and middle ranking learners appear to have differentially disappeared from both passes and enrolment.”
Ministers cannot dismiss the figures. They amount to the loss of 92,672 level 3 to 5 enrolments and to 120,035 grade A to C passes at those levels. It is exactly the pupils at the wrong side of the attainment gap who are affected.
That threatens the historical progress that the education secretary has claimed as her own. It is true that there has been progress. In 1965, when comprehensive education was introduced, 70 per cent of pupils left school with no qualifications at all; reforms such as raising the leaving age and introducing standard grades took that figure to less than 5 per cent. However, the truth is that we never completely pushed comprehensive education through to senior years, and the figures show that curriculum for excellence has created an unintended narrowing of the curriculum there, too.
A world-class education system must have more, not fewer, paths for young people, and there must be vocational paths as well as educational paths. It is time to make that reform of senior phase, encompassing colleges, universities, learning hubs and work experience as well as schools. Such a reform would properly reflect the recommendations of the Wood report and it would learn from systems elsewhere—for example, those in Germany and Finland. It would be built on a new parity of esteem between academic and vocational attainment, and a new trust between sectors. It would require proper reinvestment in colleges, so that they can re-establish their central position in a world-class system of education and training.
Instead of reducing and narrowing the qualifications of thousands of young Scots, we should seek ways to broaden and raise attainment. Perhaps we should create a Scottish graduation certificate, which could, if done in a way that was properly resourced, pull together and recognise exam results, vocational training, work experience, structured voluntary work, foundation apprenticeships, and Open University young applicants in schools scheme courses.
The OECD reports calls this time “a watershed”, and it is right to do so. To make best use of this moment, we must have the honesty to admit and to face up to the problems in our education system, the political will to provide the resources that we need and the courage to push through curriculum for excellence to the senior phase. Only then can we claim to be delivering a world-class education system. One matter is for sure: cuts and complacency will not do it.
I move amendment S4M-15282.3, to leave out from “and strengthen” to end and insert:
“if, and only if, adequate and effectively targeted resources are made available; commits the Scottish Government to introducing a 50p income tax rate on those who earn more than £150,000 per annum as soon as that power is available to it; further commits the government to use these resources to provide Fair Start Funding, which would provide £1,000 per annum for every pupil with free school meal eligibility to be used at head teachers’ discretion on measures to close the attainment gap, and believes that a reform of the senior phase in secondary schools is now required to create a comprehensive education system encompassing schools, colleges, universities, the third sector and the workplace, as well as a resolution to the unintended consequences on both enrolment and attainment of the new national 4 and 5 qualifications.”
15:20Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.