INCREASING levels of school bureaucracy are threatening to turn Scotland’s school curriculum into a “tick box exercise”, leading academics have warned.

The claim comes in a letter to the Scottish Government from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) after 154 new pages of guidance were issued to teachers.

The new draft subject “benchmarks” from schools quango Education Scotland are supposed to offer definitive guidance on the standards expected of pupils between the ages of five and 18.

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However, the RSE’s Learned Societies Group said they risked encouraging “overly bureaucratic” approaches “given their prescriptive and content-heavy approach”.

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms were supposed to empower teachers to follow the interests of pupils rather than restricting them to narrowly defined topics.

Professor Lesley Yellowlees, chair of the RSE’s Learned Societies Group, said: “The Scottish Government and Education Scotland need to make clear what impact the benchmarks are intended to have and how will this represent an improvement on what went before.

“A fundamental issue that needs to be addressed is the extent to which the benchmarks align with the original intentions of CfE, especially that which relates to enhancing the professional autonomy of teachers.

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“The benchmarks advise that practitioners should avoid overly bureaucratic

or tick-box approaches yet that is what they risk encouraging given their prescriptive and content-heavy approach.”

Professor Mark Priestly, deputy dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Stirling University, also criticised the benchmarks.

He said: “This is difficult to reconcile with the stated desire to simplify the narrative of the curriculum. It is hardly surprising the benchmarks have been met with considerable scepticism by teachers.

“It is extremely unwise for Scotland to take CfE in this direction which moves the practical curriculum yet further from the aspirational goals.”

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) added: “While the decision to issue new guidance has brought some helpful clarity in areas such as literacy and numeracy, there is growing concern the amount of guidance for all curricular areas could become a bureaucratic difficulty.”

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Education Scotland issued the draft documents to science, English and maths teachers after John Swinney, the Education Secretary, made tackling bureaucracy a priority and to deal with confusion over what is expected under CfE.

Last week Mr Swinney said he would be concerned if the benchmarks led to a tick box exercise adding: “Teachers will be able to utilise the parts that are relevant to their circumstances, but the benchmarks have been set out to make clear what is expected of a young person’s journey through the curriculum.

“There is a level of detail, but I can give an assurance that this is the definitive guidance.”