Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2017
I declare an interest in that my wife is an additional support needs teacher. Like Ross Greer, I feel that one of the most concerning issues that has been raised in oral evidence and submissions to the Education and Skills Committee is the suggestion that there is a significant lack of training in additional support needs. The record shows that one in four children in schools in Scotland identifies as having such needs, yet according to a panel that the committee heard from, teachers receive
“no specific training on autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia”
and are
“not prepared in the slightest”——[Official Report, Education and Skills Committee, 10 May 2017; c12-13.]
for how to deal with children who require further assistance in the classroom.
The committee heard that in most degree programmes, ASN courses are elective, rather than compulsory—they are something that people choose to do if they are interested. It would not be so bad if there were enough specialist ASN teachers to ease the pressures on those who are not specialists, but between 2010 and 2015 the number of ASN specialists fell by 13 per cent and dropped in 22 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. ASN teachers have indispensable skills and experience that allow them to play a crucial role in helping pupils to achieve their potential and to overcome learning challenges. We do not have enough trainee teachers with that experience coming through. Submissions from teachers to the committee show that those who are graduating are simply not receiving the encouragement, support and practical training that are required to teach pupils with such needs adequately.
This is real: it is about real people and real pupils. Just last week, a constituent told me of her grave concerns about the lack of additional support for her autistic son. She said:
“my son is ... being abandoned to the ideological commitment to inclusion. He is bright; he just got the highest score in a maths test in the whole year ... but spends at least 4 periods a day without support and without education which has ... meant a whole year wasted ... getting no education and hardly any socialisation.”
Another parent, who contributed to the study and has direct experience, said that
“It is very upsetting to see how many children are ... being disadvantaged from not being properly educated”
and that those children
“are being made desperately unhappy to the point of ... developing serious mental health problems.”
Another parent said:
“Mainstream doesn’t suit but as the clinical psychologist said, there is nothing for kids that are bright but have complex needs.”
The point about inclusion is interesting. I note that a recent report concluded that
“The policy of an inclusive education for children with additional support needs is not functioning properly in many local authority areas due to a lack of support for these children.”
We hear much about what will happen going forward. The cabinet secretary is on record as saying that the figures that have been spoken about by others in this debate are “simply not good enough” and show that education reforms are “now imperative”. Why has it taken this long and why has it required the results that we are talking about to make it “imperative”?
It is the children who are really losing out. They cannot afford to wait until the next session of Parliament for things to get better. We are talking about their future; it is time that this Government started focusing on Scotland’s priorities rather than on its own.
Perhaps, in its closing speech, the Government will address the fact that not one of the SNP members today has said to the teachers who have been sent less equipped into our schools, to the parents who are despairing at preventable outcomes and, most important of all, to the pupils who have been failed by the Government’s decisions and governance over the past 10 years, one simple word: “Sorry.” That is shameful.
16:42