Meeting of the Parliament 28 June 2017
I will do so quite happily. What Scottish education needs is a reversal of a decade’s worth of cuts. It needs the 4,000 teachers that have been cut back in the classroom and it needs the 500 additional support needs teachers back. We know that already—we know that cuts have damaged Scottish education. Those barriers have been raised repeatedly by teaching and support staff and by parents and pupils, and they are highlighted in the responses to the Government’s consultation. Budget and staffing issues are the problem. It is disappointing to see very little in the Government’s proposals that addresses those issues.
Education has faced years of austerity. As I mentioned, there are 4,000 fewer teachers and support staff have been cut. There are also staff at local authority level who support them. Key areas such as ASN have seen a reduction in both teaching and support staff, who are essential. The remaining teachers and support staff are now overstretched. Pupils are being left behind through no fault of those overburdened and underresourced staff. The Government’s response to those concerns seems to be to devolve decision making to headteachers. However, without enough investment, those headteachers will face exactly the same problems that local authorities face right now.
It is good to see that some money has been made available. The pupil equity fund is a positive step, although we have issues with its bypassing local government. The £160 million that Green members of the Scottish Parliament saved for local government in last year’s budget helps to address the issues. However, those are all only small steps in the right direction, while great strides are being taken in the wrong direction.
We therefore ask the Government to acknowledge that governance reform is not what Scottish education needs. It is misguided and does not address the real problems. We can work together to improve our education system, give schools and local authorities the resources that they need, enhance, rather than undermine, democratic accountability and do something in this session of Parliament that we can all be proud of—but it is not that.
The Scottish Greens will oppose the governance reforms and will continue arguing for the support that Scottish education actually needs.
I move amendment S5M-06376.3, to insert at end:
“; notes evidence, including that submitted in response to the consultation and in the OECD report on Scottish education, which points to structural governance reforms having no positive impact on closing the attainment gap; notes that local democratic accountability is a key strength of education governance in Scotland; expresses concern regarding the implications for accountability in the Scottish Government’s proposals to move powers away from local authorities and to create new regional collaborations; believes the Scottish Government’s proposed reforms to be fundamentally misguided and in contradiction to the issues raised and solutions proposed in responses to the consultation, and calls on the Scottish Government to reconsider the overarching direction of its proposed reforms and invest substantially in education to reverse cuts to teaching and support staff.”
15:21Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.