Meeting of the Parliament 15 May 2019
I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. Anybody who knows me knows that, at my very core, I want to build consensus. I want people to agree with one another, but I say to Jenny Gilruth that she cannot, on the one hand, ask for cross-party consensus and the building of agreement while, on the other, impugning the motives of those who look at the evidence and express concerns. When people look at the evidence and see that something needs to be done, it is unacceptable for others to say, “You’re only saying that because—”. I agree with Jenny Gilruth that Tavish Scott’s speech was depressing. It identified the challenges that we face in the education system and the First Minister’s failure so far to live up to her ambition, but saying that it was depressing is not an attack on Tavish Scott. His speech was a call for us to recognise the scale of the challenge that is ahead of us.
I say to John Swinney that I recognise the constraints that have been placed on his budget by decisions that have been made elsewhere to follow austerity. However, no matter the size of his budget, he has a responsibility for the choices that he makes within it. I simply do not understand why the Government has disproportionately prioritised cuts to local government when it is one of the key drivers for addressing inequality, disadvantage and poverty in our communities.
In the short time that I have, I will highlight multilevel teaching in the senior phase, which is an issue that teachers have flagged up to me directly and one that we have heard evidence on. As has been said, Larry Flanagan of the Educational Institute of Scotland told our committee that there has been an “explosion in multilevel classes”. That is obviously a concern. Far from being a rare response to exceptional circumstances, multilevel teaching, which may involve national 4, national 5, higher and advanced higher teaching in one class, may now be the norm. Does the cabinet secretary think that that is acceptable? Does he agree with Education Scotland that it is not an issue, or does he recognise that there is a serious issue here that is about ensuring that all our young people are getting the best possible learning opportunities? Does he agree that common sense tells us that it is much more challenging for staff to teach and for students to learn in those multilevel classes?
Has the cabinet secretary even considered the impact of being in a multilevel class on young people with additional support needs? I particularly want to emphasise the danger of multilevel teaching, which, far from assisting in closing the attainment gap, may be compounding the inequality that is experienced by young people who are already disadvantaged.