Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 17 February 2021
I ask the cabinet secretary to touch on the point about the OECD report in his concluding remarks and to say why, if he has it, it has not been published.
I think that all members would sign up to the belief that education is the greatest gift that any child could be given in a modern society, and I hope that there is unity in wanting to drive forward and ensure that all children get the best education that they possibly can.
I take on board Mr Swinney’s point that he is concerned about the criticism of civil servants and the national bodies, but the truth is that there have been major question marks about those national bodies and their ability to deliver the education that we want to see in Scotland. For many years, there have been doubts over the curriculum for excellence, the way that it was introduced and the major failings of the national bodies, which have been there for everyone to see. There have also been concerns that, as school budgets have been cut, those national bodies have grown in respect of the numbers of people working in them and their budgets, and that that has not been reflected in the levels of support to teachers and schools. I hope that Mr Swinney will pick up those points. They are genuine concerns.
When schools begin to open up more fully, I ask the Deputy First Minister to listen to teachers, staff in schools and the trade unions. P1 to P3 pupils will start on Monday. I have family members who are teachers, and I know from talking to many teachers that the pressure that teachers have worked under throughout the period of the virus has been immense. I have been told that, when kids went back to school after the first lockdown, there was a marked difference in their behaviour as they coped with new rules on wearing face coverings and so on. The pressures have been massive. As we went back into lockdown, there were pressures on teachers in particular. Many teachers have their own families at home and are therefore trying to support them and other children in the middle of lockdown. If nothing else, those teachers have come through a very difficult period, and they have earned the right to be listened to. They and the teaching unions should be listened to.
Where there are genuine concerns about safety and virus transmission, all efforts must be made to put proper alternatives in place to avoid further interruptions to education and ensure that everyone who works in our schools does so in a safe way.
I appreciate that this is a short debate and I am running out of time. I genuinely believe that everyone in Parliament wants every child to get the best opportunities for a good education. To make that make happen, we need to pull together.
Finally, regardless of what is decided today, I believe that, after the election, there will have to be a review of the national bodies and of how we deliver education.