Meeting of the Parliament 28 June 2017
Mr Gray will be familiar with the wider public finance position with which the Scottish Government wrestles. I remind him of the Audit Scotland report that indicated that the support for local government in Scotland has been essentially on a par with the funds available to the Scottish Government as a consequence of the restrictions in public expenditure.
On the core agenda of ensuring that enhanced career development opportunities are available for teachers, we will work with the profession to design new career pathways to develop leadership skills, pedagogic expertise and curriculum area specialities.
We will also consider issues connected with initial teacher education. New teachers must emerge from initial teacher education with consistently well-developed skills to teach in key areas including the core curricular areas of literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, as specified in curriculum for excellence.
The second pillar of support will ensure that capacity in our schools is built and strengthened throughout Scotland. Regional improvement collaboratives will provide dedicated educational improvement through experienced and talented educators, involving but not limited to schools, teachers, local authorities and Education Scotland. Pooling and strengthening Scotland’s education improvement resources in that way will reduce inconsistencies and will address the significant lack of capacity that exists in some parts of the country at present.