Even the best teacher knows that sometimes you speak to a group and they just don’t seem to be hearing you.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney insisted in these pages on Saturday that his schools shake-up was about decentralisation, and would not cut local authorities out of the delivery of education.
The education secretary’s message doesn’t seem to be getting through, though.
To add to the concerns of Cosla, who say councils are very much being sidelined, two leading experts in Scottish education have weighed in with their own doubts about Mr Swinney’s strategy to hand more power to headteachers.
Concerns focus on the so-called regional collaboratives – the new structures which will offer support to schools, and report back to the education inspectorate.
Keir Bloomer argues that heads are being given the responsibility for improvement, without the necessary freedoms to deliver that outcome. A proponent of complete devolution of power to schools, he fears councils will still have too much say.
As our report today says, he is also fiercely critical of the planned “regional collaboratives”. The bodies will be “authoritarian, unwanted, bureaucratic and hierarchical”, Mr Bloomer says, describing the reforms overall as “utterly incoherent”.
The collaboratives, and their relationship to Education Scotland, show Mr Swinney unwilling to actually give headteachers the independence they need, he says, adding: “Decentralisation works where there is trust and that is notably lacking.”
Professor Walter Humes, of Stirling University also perceives a “tension” between freedom and control, warning that making local decisions may be difficult within the bureaucratic structure the government proposes.
But is that really what the government is doing? Mr Swinney’s bafflement that people cannot see the wisdom of his approach is apparently genuine.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the teaching union the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), has given the regional collaborative concept a guarded welcome.
He points out schools have lost many of the supports they had in the past, such as educational improvement officers – a post largely sacrificed to council efficiencies, with those that remain seeing their role changed so that they monitor, rather than help schools to improve.
Meanwhile, all but a couple of councils have disposed of the role of a director of education completely, subsuming the role under other headings.
Mr Flanagan sees the regions as recognition that schools do need that external support, outside help to tackle the attainment gap and drive up standards.
If this was Mr Swinney’s goal then the incoherence is in the presentation, rather than the policy itself. But the debate is already becoming fractious. If Mr Swinney wants to get his message across, he will need to try harder to ensure his changes win support.
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