Chamber
Plenary, 30 Sep 1999
30 Sep 1999 · S1 · Plenary
Item of business
Non-Executive Business: Education
Ms Sturgeon has already made her speech and she should be content with that, be a bit patient and let me deal with the matters before me.
As part of our constructive approach, we are committed in the partnership agreement to establishing an education forum to review and raise standards in schools. I have carefully considered how we should implement that commitment. Our approach to raising standards depends centrally on teachers' practical experience and understanding of the process of teaching and learning. I want the forum to provide an opportunity for that, not as another standing advisory body or task force, but as part of a continuing participative process.
I therefore propose that the education forum will build on the recent innovative and highly successful summit meetings with head teachers. I propose two forum meetings each year and that attendance at each forum should be widely drawn from head teachers and teachers from throughout Scotland.
A priority will be to ensure that the practical experience of teachers can be balanced against the work of researchers on teaching and learning. I shall ask the existing National Education Research Forum to assist in that process. Our objective will be to improve our collective understanding of the implications of research for teaching and learning and the experience of children in our schools, and to ensure that research priorities properly reflect current experience in schools.
Each forum will review items of current interest in the light of relevant practical and research experience and reach a view about the implications for further policy developments. I will also ensure that the discussion and its implications are widely disseminated to all interested parties.
I will seek views as soon as possible on the detailed arrangements for the establishment of the forum and on issues that it might address in its first meetings. As before, the Education, Culture and Sport Committee will be consulted on this matter.
For teachers to be able to provide an excellent and improving education for our children, their professional status must be enhanced. That is why a responsive and flexible system of professional conditions for teachers is essential. That system must reward excellence and encourage innovation and commitment. It must allow us to recruit and develop the teachers whom our children deserve and it must be able to adapt to new challenges and methods. We need a system in which professional conditions can regularly be reviewed and updated as circumstances change, without our schools suffering dislocation and disruption
This debate is not about the management offer that foundered in the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff in School Education earlier this month. Plainly, that offer was unacceptable to teachers around the country. We should not now argue about the rights and wrongs of the offer. We have a much wider and more important duty to perform.
As part of our constructive approach, we are committed in the partnership agreement to establishing an education forum to review and raise standards in schools. I have carefully considered how we should implement that commitment. Our approach to raising standards depends centrally on teachers' practical experience and understanding of the process of teaching and learning. I want the forum to provide an opportunity for that, not as another standing advisory body or task force, but as part of a continuing participative process.
I therefore propose that the education forum will build on the recent innovative and highly successful summit meetings with head teachers. I propose two forum meetings each year and that attendance at each forum should be widely drawn from head teachers and teachers from throughout Scotland.
A priority will be to ensure that the practical experience of teachers can be balanced against the work of researchers on teaching and learning. I shall ask the existing National Education Research Forum to assist in that process. Our objective will be to improve our collective understanding of the implications of research for teaching and learning and the experience of children in our schools, and to ensure that research priorities properly reflect current experience in schools.
Each forum will review items of current interest in the light of relevant practical and research experience and reach a view about the implications for further policy developments. I will also ensure that the discussion and its implications are widely disseminated to all interested parties.
I will seek views as soon as possible on the detailed arrangements for the establishment of the forum and on issues that it might address in its first meetings. As before, the Education, Culture and Sport Committee will be consulted on this matter.
For teachers to be able to provide an excellent and improving education for our children, their professional status must be enhanced. That is why a responsive and flexible system of professional conditions for teachers is essential. That system must reward excellence and encourage innovation and commitment. It must allow us to recruit and develop the teachers whom our children deserve and it must be able to adapt to new challenges and methods. We need a system in which professional conditions can regularly be reviewed and updated as circumstances change, without our schools suffering dislocation and disruption
This debate is not about the management offer that foundered in the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff in School Education earlier this month. Plainly, that offer was unacceptable to teachers around the country. We should not now argue about the rights and wrongs of the offer. We have a much wider and more important duty to perform.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Sir David Steel):
NPA
The first item of business this morning is a non- Executive debate on motion S1M-172, in the name of Mr Alex Salmond, on education, and amendments to that mo...
Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
To begin, I would like to say a word or two on why the Scottish National party has chosen as the subject of our Opposition debate this morning the pay and co...
Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab) rose—
Lab
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
I will give way in a minute, Hugh. The Executive is the third party in the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff in School Education, albei...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
Will Ms Sturgeon tell us whether the SNP recommends paying in full the demand from the teachers' unions for an 8 per cent pay rise this year? Is the SNP prep...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
No, Mr Henry, I believe in the continuation of the SJNC and that this year's pay dispute is a matter for teachers and COSLA to deal with through the SJNC. Th...
Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab):
Lab
Will Ms Sturgeon inform the chamber whether the SNP councils represented on COSLA supported COSLA's proposed offer?
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
I will do better than that; I will read from a motion that was passed by SNP- controlled Clackmannanshire Council. The motion says: "This council notes with ...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Before I call on the Minister for Children and Education to reply and move his amendment, I wish to remind members that yesterday's opening speeches overran ...
The Minister for Children and Education (Mr Sam Galbraith):
Lab
I will try to keep to time. I was pleased that the SNP spokesman, Nicola Sturgeon, mentioned children—at least in her speech. One of the striking features of...
Nicola Sturgeon rose—
SNP
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
No, I have just started. Please sit down. I welcome this opportunity to set out again the clear and positive thinking behind the Executive's decisions on the...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
Which individuals and bodies did the minister consult before taking the decision to set up the independent committee of inquiry? Will he justify his decision...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Order. Interventions are supposed to be brief.
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
Ms Sturgeon has already made her speech and she should be content with that, be a bit patient and let me deal with the matters before me. As part of our cons...
Nicola Sturgeon rose—
SNP
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
We need to consider why the process of discussion and deliberation, which took so long, led to such an outcome. We need to consider how we can deliver the ki...
Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West):
*
Will the minister give way?
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
No thanks.My job is to raise teachers' salaries to the highest possible level. Like the Prime Minister, I see no reason why some teachers cannot be paid as w...
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP):
SSP
I do not know whether the fact that the minister has given way is an indication of favouritism. He was asked a question on the committee of inquiry, which I ...
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
The member forgot to point out that representatives of the teaching profession are involved in the committee. Two head teachers, one from a primary school an...
Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
Will the minister give way?
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
I will give way, but for the last time, as I am trying to keep to the time limit.
Michael Russell:
SNP
I hear the minister's point. Will he, however, respond publicly to the official letter that he received from the Scottish Trades Union Congress? The letter s...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Order. I have no friends.
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
It is a principle of mine always to respond privately to letters that are sent to me. I suggest that the member does the same, rather than, as he always does...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
Will the minister give way?
Mr Galbraith:
Lab
I am winding up.Nevertheless, we have acted decisively and positively to show the way forward. Our approach allows the existing machinery of the SJNC to deli...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Both front-bench speakers have kept within the time limit, which is a new record for the Parliament. I call on Mr Monteith to do likewise and to move amendme...
Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
I am pleased to take part in today's debate, because it is important that someone tries to bring the two sides together. In these days of cosy consensus poli...