EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney has been criticised after it emerged the Government’s flagship policy of closing the attainment gap in education had been watered down.
An analysis of the Cabinet Minister’s language since May reveals he has subtly toned down the short- and long-term ambition for reforming schools.
Labour MSP Iain Gray accused the Government of trying to "spin down" expectations.
The Government has a multi-headed approach to reducing the gap in grades achieved by pupils from the poorest and least deprived backgrounds.
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National standardised assessments are central to the reform plan, but Ministers also want to divert £100m in council tax revenues to schools directly. Schools will also share legal responsibility for the delivery of education with local authorities, a move that requires legislation.
However, although he has been energetic since taking over from Angela Constance as Education Secretary in May, Swinney has carefully reworded the Government’s education objectives.
In particular, he has been cautious about committing the Government to making measurable improvements in this parliamentary term.
The SNP’s Holyrood manifesto, on which 63 SNP MSPs were elected, stated that the Government’s “mission” was to “make significant progress in closing the gap within the next parliament”.
However, by June, at which point Swinney had replaced Constance, his education Delivery Plan stated a commitment to making “demonstrable progress” during the lifetime of this term.
Image: SNP manifesto in May
Image: from the Scottish Government delivery plan in June
The language has also shifted in relation to the long-term goals. In January, Sturgeon said she wanted to make progress in “completely eliminating the attainment gap within the next decade.”
The SNP manifesto in May rolled back on this statement by promising Ministers would “substantially” wipe out the gap, but by early June Swinney told the Educational Institute of Scotland that he wanted to “completely” eradicate it. However, the Delivery Plan, published later that month, settled on “substantially”.
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An SNP source said: “I think John is wary of making big promises and setting bold targets, particularly over the current term of the Parliament. It will take time to reform the system.”
Gray said: "The SNP Government has a habit of moving the goalposts when it comes to their self-imposed targets, but to water down their promises here would be completely unacceptable.
"With hundreds of millions of pounds of SNP cuts still to come the SNP Government should ditch their strategy to spin down expectations and instead use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to stop the cuts to education and invest in our schools."
Scottish Conservative MSP Liz Smith said: "It is not surprising that the SNP's language has shifted. Whilst virtually everyone agrees that addressing the attainment gap is the number one priority in Scottish schools, many eyebrows were raised when the First Minister said that her government would completely close the gap – something that many in educational circles say can never happen because of the different ability levels in different pupils.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “There should be no doubt that the Scottish Government is firmly committed to achieving an education system which delivers both excellence and equity in education, in equal measure for all children in Scotland. This requires the full efforts of all those involved in education to substantially eliminate the attainment gap between children from our most and least disadvantaged backgrounds over the next decade.
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“Whether we have made demonstrable progress towards closing the attainment gap will be determined through information collected as part of the National Improvement Framework.”
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