By John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
I WILL set out the next steps for education reform in a statement to the Scottish Parliament tomorrow.
There are already many strengths in Scottish education. More of our young people are getting excellent exam results and going onto a job, training or continuing their studies.
Fundamentally, Scotland has a good education system, with great teachers and engaged pupils. To suggest otherwise does a massive disservice to our young people and teachers.
However, the recent PISA and literacy scores show the genuine challenges we face in raising the bar for all and closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
As part of the relentless drive to improve Scottish education, we must therefore embrace the need to reform and reshape our education system. We need to get the whole system pulling in the same direction.
We firstly must ask: who is best placed to understand and meet the educational needs of individual children? Who knows them? Who is at the heart of their schooling?
That is why I have pledged to make teachers and parents the key decision makers in the life of a school. Decisions about a child’s learning should be made as close to that child as possible.
Reforms already undertaken by the Scottish Government are designed to do just that.
Our Pupil Equity Funding, for example, will see £120 million allocated directly to schools this year. It recognises that headteachers, teachers and parents are best placed to address the attainment gap in their own school – and puts the power to change lives directly in the hands of those with the expertise and insight to target resources at the greatest need.
Headteachers have told me how enthusiastic they are about this new policy. Some are anxious to make sure they are spending the extra money where it will make the most difference to the children in their schools. But all are excited to have the means and the opportunity to change children’s lives for the better.
Take Craigroyston Primary School, for example, in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. There, it is not uncommon to see children starting primary one with the literacy skills of a three-year-old.
Let’s reflect on that. Language skills are crucial to successfully achieving potential. Yet very young children, solely because they were born into poverty, are starting school already lagging two years behind their more affluent peers.
Through additional government money last year, the headteacher at Craigroyston is able to act to interrupt the cycle of inter-generational poverty. She has hired a speech and language therapist targeting early years – something she has wanted to do for decades but only now has been given the budget and authority.
When I visited the school, I joined a session with primary ones and their teacher and saw the positive impact on children’s progress. The headteacher now plans to use the school’s £132,000 Pupil Equity Funding to target support even earlier for children starting school.
This is my vision for Scottish education.
It is a vision of empowerment and devolution: devolution to schools and empowerment of the teaching profession.
It is a vision that requires the Scottish Government and local government to work together with all partners to drive improvement in Scottish education.
There are some who say nothing needs to change. But it is clear that doing more of the same will not achieve our ambitions for our children and their future.
We must go further to drive improvements, putting young people at the heart of Scottish education and supporting and empowering headteachers, teachers and parents. Tomorrow I will set out the actions which will achieve this.
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