Meeting of the Parliament 02 February 2016
I oppose the amendments in Liam McArthur’s name.
With this group of amendments—group 3—we reach the heart of the bill: the national improvement framework. That is ironic, of course, because when the bill was introduced the national improvement framework was not part of it. It did not exist. Indeed, although the Government moved amendments to introduce it at stage 2, there was no framework to enable the Education and Culture Committee to consider what was being included in the bill.
We have been critical of the approach that the Scottish Government—and the First Minister, in particular—have taken to the debate on national standardised testing. The First Minister has, on occasion, tried to play both sides and to convince some commentators that she is supporting a return to high-stakes national testing and comparisons while reassuring others—in particular, the teaching profession and parents—that that is not the intention. The original version of the improvement framework rather risked such a return.
The final version of the framework removes much of that risk, although to a degree it does so by delaying our knowing what national standardised testing will look like—a working group is developing it—but ministers, the cabinet secretary and the First Minister have given us strong assurances that all that is really intended is replacement of the existing standardised testing that is already used in schools with a particular national system that will be developed. In itself, that should improve the data that are available to us. That has to be a good thing, as long as it is done in a way that avoids high-stakes testing, teaching to the test and crude league tables.
On the basis of the assurances that we have been given, we will not support Liam McArthur’s amendments.
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