Meeting of the Parliament 29 March 2017
I have heard that kind of stuff, too, and I think that it is a cultural thing. The previous inspections regime was so onerous—and I will say more about this in a moment—that there is a disconnect with the inspectorate’s message that it is there to help teachers develop, instead of taking a clipboard approach. That message has yet to percolate through, and it is incumbent on local authorities and headteachers to get it down to classroom level.
Another issue that has been raised by the Liberal Democrats is the conflict of interest in having the inspectorate as part of Education Scotland. I am not wholly convinced by the argument; I can see what they mean on the face of it, but I do not think that there is a pressing case for separation and going back to having two separate bodies. Education Scotland provides insight into the practical implementation of education policy through its school inspection programme and other quality assurance activities at school and local authority level. Scotland is not alone in taking that approach; Norway has a similar body that takes an integrated approach to curriculum development, learning and teaching, and inspection. It builds on a three-tier approach to quality assurance that puts practitioner self-evaluation at the heart of things, which is only right. As a former education practitioner, I know that self-evaluation and peer evaluation are among the most effective ways of carrying out continuing professional development.
As it stands, Education Scotland does not determine the design or the content of the curriculum that is being inspected—that is the SQA’s job. Rather, Education Scotland takes that curriculum and develops it in partnership with local authorities, teachers and the inspectors. The inspections are part and parcel of that development. If inspections truly are moving away from the culture of judgment and are, as committee witnesses and teaching practitioners to whom I have spoken have suggested, becoming more of a professional development tool, separating the inspectors from Education Scotland might be a backwards step for Scottish education. To be honest, there are probably more pressing issues, such as getting the message across that the culture of inspections has changed wholly—Ross Greer mentioned that issue—rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water and going back to an HMIE-type situation.
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