Best teachers for deprived areas

Education Correspondent

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Scotland's best teachers and school heads could soon be working in deprived areas to help drive up standards, with one-third of secondaries currently failing inspections.

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Andrew Denholm Education Correspondent

Education Secretary Michael Russell admitted yesterday he was "sympathetic" to the idea of transferring classroom staff and headteachers with a proven track record to kick-start schools failing to achieve pass marks.

It follows a report by national quango Education Scotland which found nearly one-third of secondaries serving the most deprived areas are failing inspections, compared to a figure of 10% for all schools.

The study led to calls by Brian Boyd, emeritus professor of education at Strathclyde University, for financial incentives to attract the most gifted teachers and leaders to work in deprived areas.Labour MSP Neil Findlay, the deputy convener of the Scottish Parliament's education committee, also suggested the attainment gap could be closed by getting the best leaders and teachers into the areas where they were needed the most.Giving evidence to the education committee yesterday, Mr Russell said he was "not unsympathetic" to the idea.He told fellow MSPs: "In discussing attainment, I notice Mr Findlay talked about the question of whether - teachers in schools in one area of Scotland might go to schools that have greater difficulties. I am very open to that type of suggestion and, over the next year, one of my objectives will be to look at this issue in more depth to make sure we can find ways to move it forward."Later, Mr Findlay called for a dialogue with the teaching profession on the issue."We should be engaging with teaching professionals and their trade unions to explore how we can ensure the pupils who most need assistance are taught by the best teachers in schools led by the best leaders," he said.The rest of the committee meeting was dominated by discussion of the troubled implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and the role of Education Scotland.The government body had been asked to conduct a "deep audit" into whether schools are ready for CfE exams, but the results were dismissed as a "flimsy" two-and-a-half-page document.Ken Muir, Education Scotland's chief inspector, told the committee the report contained "a substantial amount of information".MSPs heard teachers felt "very uncomfortable" if they spoke about the difficulties of implementing CfE to council officials.Alan Taylor, of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, said: "Anyone who was brave enough to say 'I'm not really managing with this, I'm not sure what I'm doing' found they have been quizzed quite intensively by senior education officials at local authority level, and made to feel very uncomfortable."

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Best teachers for deprived areas

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