Meeting of the Parliament 07 December 2022
That is further evidence that the Government and the cabinet secretary do not listen. All the advice is to the contrary of what the Government announced last week.
What the cabinet secretary needs to understand is that being seen to do something is just not the same as doing it. I ask again: why are there 59 people on the reform delivery bodies—predominantly from the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and the SQA—but only three places for teachers? Why does that all sound vaguely familiar, like a game of musical chairs? Why is the cabinet secretary so afraid of new voices and new thinking in education reform? Did she even consider getting new people in?
Scotland needs teachers who are confident, held in high esteem and free to teach. It needs headteachers who are free to lead their schools and it needs pupils who are free to learn without disruption in the classroom. Scotland needs schools that inspire and uplift our young people to be all that they can be in life. If we get those principles right, we will succeed in vitalising our education system.
I hope that, when she stands to speak, we might see a cabinet secretary with some passion and reforming zeal, who will deliver an articulate vision of what Scottish education should be that goes beyond the normal SNP complacency and self-congratulation. Let us hear answers to the serious questions that I have asked in my speech and let her acknowledge the real challenges that we face. Then, let us work across Parliament to tackle them together.
I move,
That the Parliament believes that access to a first-class education is the right of all children; notes that teachers have been neglected and let down by the Scottish Government, that young people, from early years education to further and higher education, have suffered from failures in government, and that the people of Scotland have been let down by the undermining of an education system of which they were once proud; believes that, through badly-drawn reform, inaction and a failure to innovate, the Scottish Government has fundamentally undermined the education system in Scotland, meaning that action is required now to address these problems, and calls on the Scottish Government to urgently outline a new education plan with a focus on respect for Scotland’s teachers, opportunities for its young people and growth for the whole sector, so that education in Scotland can once again be the best gift for its children.