Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to update Parliament on next steps for education and skills reform. Members will recall that, in June, I paused the legislative programme that was originally scheduled for this year. I did that for good reason. My engagements with the profession during the past eight months have cemented my view that our education system has fundamentally changed since Covid. Rushing to legislate will not change that. Reform must mean better outcomes for our young people and adult learners. Reform also means that we must take teachers with us. I cannot change our systems without their skills and knowledge and, importantly, their buy-in.

Our education and skills system must work as a single system that is easy to navigate, with collective responsibility to deliver excellence for all. In 2021, the Scottish Government accepted all the recommendations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report, which independently reviewed and endorsed curriculum for excellence. That was followed by Professor Ken Muir’s report, the national discussion on education, the review of qualifications and assessment, and our initial response to James Withers’s review of the purpose and principles for post-school education, research and skills. I again thank the reviewers for their reports.

We all accept the need to move on from those reports with tangible action by setting out the steps which are right for our young people and adult learners. To that end, although today’s statement is largely focused on school reform, I confirm to the chamber that, subject to agreement, the Minister for Higher and Further Education intends to update Parliament later this year on our response to James Withers’s review on post-school education.

Reform must be more than the sum of its parts, and it cannot exist in a vacuum. The pandemic changed us all, and the impacts of Covid were arguably the hardest for our youngest citizens. We know that the number of young children in Scotland who are experiencing speech and language delays has increased since Covid. At 27 to 30 months, the proportion of children with a developmental concern in our poorest areas is more than double that of children living in our richest areas. Speak to any primary teacher today and they will tell you about the difference that has come about since 2020 in the young people whom they teach.

That impact was, of course, layered on top of an attainment gap during a cost of living crisis that has delivered the biggest fall in living standards since Scottish records began. That context has fundamentally changed the type of learning and teaching in our schools. It means that teachers are accommodating vastly different needs than those that existed only four years ago. I know that teachers are doing that already—it is what they do—but reform must recognise that shift and it must better support how the profession responds. If reform does not recognise the changes in our classrooms, whether they be in developmental delays, changed behaviour, communication or even attendance, it will not carry credibility.

This is not, therefore, about rebadging organisations. Reform has to be about systemic, cultural change that improves outcomes for our young people and better supports the professionals whom we entrust with their care. To that end, I confirm to Parliament some changes to the governance processes that I hope will bring greater purpose, while supporting a more holistic approach to reform across the portfolio.

I will chair a ministerial group that will advise on the totality of education and skills reform, recognising that it is one system. That will better reflect the totality of the reports that have been published this year, and pull together the opportunity for a joined up system. We will also establish an education and skills reform chief executive forum, to ensure that all the bodies that will be impacted by reform can engage collectively and directly with Government in support of our reform ambitions. Finally, I have been clear that teachers and educators must be directly involved in the governance, to help to deliver the change that is required, through those new bodies, and to ensure that the expertise from the profession drives improvement.

Reform provides us with a unique opportunity to better support the teaching profession and, in so doing, our children and young people. Members will recall that, in June, I announced a review of the impact of the regional improvement collaboratives, and I thank all those who have contributed, including members of the RICs. Since their inception in 2017, the RICs have increased the improvement and leadership support that they provide. Indeed, the most recent evidence suggests that around 17,500 practitioners and leaders across early years, primary and secondary settings have been engaged in regional activities in the past year. However, although their support was never intended to be universal, the number of staff and establishments receiving RIC support in the school year remains a minority.

I am clear that we must deliver a system that provides greater equity in access to improvement and professional learning support for teachers. Regional collaboration is important, and the RICs have helped to embed that culture in our local authorities. However, future Scottish Government investment will now be directed to initiatives that advance excellence in teaching in our classrooms, while looking to local authorities to build on those collaborative approaches.

To that end, I confirm that, for the next academic year, the Scottish Government will taper funding from the RICs and repurpose it to better support teachers in our classrooms. I have asked Education Scotland to review its regional structure, recognising the importance of strengthening the curriculum and professional learning.

I am clear that we have real strengths in Scotland’s education system. For example, one aspect that is close to my own heart concerns the subject specialisms that we have in our secondary schools. That attribute should be celebrated and better supported nationally; it is unique to Scottish education, and we should be proud of it.

In our secondary schools, we have a cohort of teachers who are passionate about teaching their subject. Our national support should build on the expertise that we already have in our classrooms, using that passion to instil the joy of learning that the national discussion spoke to.

There is no greater strength in our education system than excellent learning and teaching. It is crucial to closing the poverty-related attainment gap, and I want all Scotland’s teachers to have the space, time and support that they need to develop their practice. I am particularly mindful of the cohort of teachers who learned how to become a teacher during the pandemic, which cannot have been easy.

We know that excellent teaching is already happening in schools across Scotland. Children and young people are achieving and the attainment gap is narrowing, but more must be done to support the profession. Being a teacher is a valuable profession. The new centre for teaching excellence will, therefore, fill an important gap in our national approach to education. It will help us to remain at the cutting edge of teaching practice by distilling research and evidence into practical support for teachers in our classrooms.

I anticipate that the centre will be hosted by a university, learning from the successful model of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, which is better known as CELCIS, and working closely with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education. Being hosted by a university, the centre will link the school sector with the university sector at national level.

Another strength of Scottish education is the independent General Teaching Council for Scotland, which oversees the professional standards that are required to become a teacher. By championing those standards, the new centre will strengthen support for the profession. Crucially, however, the centre must be designed with our teachers. Indeed, the centre needs to help school leaders and teachers to grow professionally throughout their careers. It will provide an opportunity to clarify roles and responsibilities in the system, including those of the new education agency.

I recently met with teaching unions and professional associations to discuss more around the centre for excellence. That helped to generate some useful initial insights. Those have also been emphasised in the third report from the First Minister’s international council of education advisers, which I am pleased to confirm that we will publish today. The council states that we must invest in education professionals’ learning

“to address the changing needs of ... young people.”

Establishing the centre for teaching excellence directly meets that recommendation.

The third report from the international council provides a strong focus on improving teaching and pedagogy. The report helpfully synthesises the recent reviews that we have heard about, recognising that there are significant commonalities and that now is the time for implementation, improvement and reform. The international council’s report further supports the focus on improving teaching, professional development, collaboration and innovation.

Today also marks the launch of the consultation on the education reform bill. Building on engagement to date, the consultation sets out proposals to establish a new qualifications body, including the need for greater involvement of pupils, teachers and wider stakeholders in decision making. It also sets out ways to maximise the positive impact of inspection. I would encourage everyone to share the consultation, which is available on the Scottish Government’s website, as widely as possible in order to support that engagement.

Of course, changing the organisations that deliver our qualifications, support and inspection is only part of reform. Since the conclusion of the Hayward review in June, I have been seeking views on the recommendations pertaining to the national qualifications. We undertook a survey with teachers and lecturers on the report, which received more than 2,000 responses. Although agreement on the need for change was clear, there were varying views on next steps, and on the perceived appetite for radical reform.

In that context, I cannot ignore the challenges that our schools are currently responding to, and I must balance that reality with any reform of our qualifications system. With that in mind, I propose—subject to parliamentary agreement—to return to the chamber in the new year to debate the proposals fully. In the meantime, I will engage with Opposition spokespeople on the next steps, to ensure that we use any parliamentary debate to encourage greater support for political consensus.

I am conscious of time, but I want to place on the record my thanks to staff at Education Scotland and at the Scottish Qualifications Agency. I recognise the uncertainty that change brings. The Government has provided a commitment to no compulsory redundancies within the reform agenda, and I commit to fully engaging with both organisations and their respective trade unions, as I have already done.

To coin an expression, reform is a process, not an event. For every ardent supporter of radical reform tomorrow, there are 10 teachers telling me about the other challenges that they experience at the chalkface—challenges that Government needs to work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and our trade union partners to resolve.

Covid turned our education system on its head. Overnight, our children were educated behind their screens. The role of the teacher, in that shift, is often forgotten.

We will have professional standards, supported by a centre for excellence that will join higher education with our schools and deliver the improvements that we need to see for our young people, and the teachers in our schools will be supported in the craft that they are trained in delivering.

I look forward to returning to the chamber next year to fully debate our qualifications system. As I do so, I will be guided by the most important principle of all: improved outcomes for our children and young people. That is the prize that reform offers us, and getting it right is absolutely essential.