Committee
Education and Skills Committee 31 May 2017
31 May 2017 · S5 · Education and Skills Committee
Item of business
Workforce Planning (Schools)
The Donaldson review in 2011 was clear that literacy and numeracy were specific issues, and Donaldson made recommendations about that. Your evaluation of how the Donaldson review is being enacted raised concerns about “relatively limited literacy and numeracy skills and a lack of in-depth subject knowledge” among many teachers, and that report is fairly recent. Given the warnings that were issued in 2011 and given what the Scottish Government said, why are quite a number of witnesses telling us that the quality of delivery on literacy and numeracy is still weak in some areas?
In the same item of business
The Convener (James Dornan)
SNP
Good morning and welcome to the Education and Skills Committee’s 17th meeting in 2017. I remind everyone to turn their mobile phones and other devices to sil...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (John Swinney)
SNP
I welcome the opportunity to give evidence and to set out the foundations of the Government’s approach to the delivery of workforce planning in education. ...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. You mentioned vacancies. There seems to be some discrepancy in the vacancy rates and how accurate and up to date they are. Is there some way for t...
John Swinney
SNP
The vacancy position varies at different stages during the year. The question comes down to the frequency with which we consider it necessary to gather that ...
The Convener
SNP
Are you confident that the information that you get from local authorities is as accurate as it can be? Is there scope for improving that data?
John Swinney
SNP
We rely on local authorities to input the quality information that is required for the teaching workforce planning exercise. It is in their interests to ensu...
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
In the parliamentary debate a couple of weeks ago, and again this morning, you said that you were disappointed by many of the findings in the recent ITE repo...
John Swinney
SNP
The work of the Donaldson review has been taken forward in partnership with the colleges of education to ensure that the recommendations have been put into p...
Liz Smith
Con
The Donaldson review in 2011 was clear that literacy and numeracy were specific issues, and Donaldson made recommendations about that. Your evaluation of how...
John Swinney
SNP
It is important for us to remember the words “in some areas”, which Liz Smith used in the latter part of her question. I come back to the fact that we have e...
Liz Smith
Con
One of the great concerns is that Scottish standards of literacy and numeracy are not nearly as good as we would like them to be, and that has to be set in t...
John Swinney
SNP
The Government can do and has already done a number of things. The first was the guidance that the chief inspector of education issued to all practitioners i...
Liz Smith
Con
Indeed.
John Swinney
SNP
The Government therefore has to lead a process that involves all interested parties to make sure that initial teacher education delivers all that we require ...
Liz Smith
Con
My final question is a big one. In hindsight, do you think that the curriculum for excellence has been part of the problem, in that the teaching profession h...
John Swinney
SNP
Curriculum for excellence is a broad curriculum to enable young people to have the capacities to face an ever-changing and dynamic world. In that respect—thi...
Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab)
Lab
There are about 700 vacancies in schools across Scotland. I think that we would all agree that a key priority is to ensure that those positions are filled; t...
John Swinney
SNP
Of course that is an issue of concern. The model that we use looks at a range of factors that Mr Johnson will be familiar with: pupil numbers, census informa...
Daniel Johnson
Lab
According to TES Scotland, there is a 5.6 per cent drop-out rate from the professional graduate diploma in education programme. The figures on the probatione...
John Swinney
SNP
There will be a range of issues, some of which will be about individuals getting further experience of teaching and believing that it is not the right thing ...
Daniel Johnson
Lab
As I said, there is a combination of factors: retaining those students, but also having the right target in the first place. The target number of student tea...
John Swinney
SNP
Mr Johnson uses the correct numbers, but the other factor that should be taken into account is the high level of teacher unemployment—if I can use that termi...
The Convener
SNP
This should be your last question, Daniel.
Daniel Johnson
Lab
I quite agree on the need for that line of sight. However, one concern that came up in evidence last week was that the line of sight is currently limited to ...
John Swinney
SNP
On your first point, our statistical model takes into account a number of factors, including population and pupil number projections; the pupil census and th...
Tavish Scott (Shetland Islands) (LD)
LD
I have a couple of supplementaries to Daniel Johnson’s questions about the model. When Laurence Findlay from Moray Council gave evidence three weeks ago, his...
John Swinney
SNP
The model certainly has to address all circumstances and all localities, but I assure Mr Scott and the committee that the position at local level is directly...
Tavish Scott
LD
Coincidentally—actually it was not coincidental at all—yesterday I met Helen Budge, the director of education in Shetland, and she said that Shetland is stru...
John Swinney
SNP
We will work with our partners and strive to ensure that the breadth of curriculum that is expected can be delivered across the country. We will need to take...
Tavish Scott
LD
I appreciate that. Laurence Findlay also mentioned the preference waiver scheme. He said: “We could make the preferential scheme a bit more preferential.”—O...