Meeting of the Parliament 28 June 2017
No. Let me come on to that point, because it is important.
Recruiting headteachers and teachers is already a problem. Our teachers already have lower salaries, more class time and bigger classes than teachers in the rest of Europe—they are planning strike action already, even before facing the new responsibilities.
The changes are uncosted and unfunded. Worse still, the new regional bureaucracy threatens to suck resources towards the centre. I have said that cross-council collaboration that moves towards something like the old regional advisory services could support teachers to teach, and I have heard what the cabinet secretary has said. However, I have read his document and the more closely that I look at the structures, the less they look like autonomy and pedagogical support and the more they look like control and centralised command.
We are to have an overarching education council chaired by the cabinet secretary; regional directors, appointed by the cabinet secretary; and they will be responsible for preparing and delivering regional plans and be answerable to the chief executive of Education Scotland, who is, of course, accountable to the cabinet secretary. All that is backed by a Sophie’s choice of two funding models, both of which would strip out local democratic control of school budgets. That will be driven by a beefed up Education Scotland, which, as Liz Smith said, is the one bit of the system that the consultation said absolutely should be reformed.
That does not look like a system designed by someone who trusts teachers to teach; rather, it looks like a system designed by an education secretary who seeks to run our schools from his office in St Andrew’s house. This is not
“listening to parents and teachers”;
rather it is defying them. It is not “strengthening the middle” as suggested by the OECD, but is strengthening central control, increasing the pressure and burden on schools and headteachers and gutting the middle—the local authorities that should support them.
The document quotes Dylan Wiliam, saying:
“The only thing that really matters is the quality of the teacher.”
However, there is nothing here about the real change needed: an end to cuts and enough teachers with enough time and enough support to be the best teachers in the world. That will not be delivered by an education council in Edinburgh, by regional enforcers of Government policy or by the proposed next steps.
The cabinet secretary should take a lesson from the First Minister yesterday. It is time for another policy reset. It is time to really listen to parents, teachers and educationists and not just to say that he is listening. He must try again and do better.
I move amendment S5M-06376.4, to leave out from “publication” to end and insert:
“Scottish Government document, Education Governance, Empowering Teachers Parents and Communities to achieve Excellence and Equity in Education; An analysis of consultation responses, which states that ‘There was widespread support for the current governance system and an apprehension towards further change within the system’, that ‘On the whole, respondents did not see current governance arrangements as a barrier for improvement and that changing them was not expected to address the deep-seated issues that get in the way of achieving excellence and equity for all’ and that ‘Specifically respondents thought that budget cuts and staffing issues were the two key barriers for improvement’; does not believe that the Scottish Government document, Education Governance: Next Steps in any way addresses these concerns of parents, teachers, headteachers and educationalists, and calls on the Scottish Government to halt these reforms and to return urgently to the Parliament with a programme of measures that does address these concerns, including action towards restoring cuts to budgets, teacher numbers and support staff.”
15:13Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.