Over the last four years, teachers, pupils and parents have been getting used to the new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and the inevitable readjustment and change that goes with it, but should the way we inspect schools change too?
Quietly, Education Scotland, which is responsible for the inspection process, has begun to do just that by exercising a lighter touch on more successful schools and focusing resources on the schools with the greatest need.
As part of this process, Education Scotland is now considering a further change that could speed up the reform and profoundly affect the way schools in Scotland are inspected.
Currently, the inspectorate produces reports on individual schools while also looking at how well subjects are taught across the country. Under Education Scotland's proposals, inspectors would instead focus on particular communities by looking at everything together at the same time, including nurseries, primaries, secondaries and colleges, as well as council education departments.
The idea has much merit, mainly because the experience of pupils in the comprehensive system in Scotland is not equal. As a recent report from Education Scotland demonstrated, pupils from the most affluent backgrounds are likely to leave school with three times the qualifications of pupils from the poorest, not because better-off pupils are three times as able as poorer ones, but because of the social and economic problems often faced by the latter group.
A more focused approach to inspections could help identify which communities are facing these issues, how they are affecting schools in particular areas, and begin to set out a strategy for tackling them. It could provide a detailed idea of how education is being organised and run in a particular area, and the experience of children from the first days of nursery to the last days of college.
For instance, schools with different results could be compared to identify possible areas of improvement. Does one school, for example, benefit from particularly good nursery provision? Or is one secondary doing better because it focuses on the early years and helps pupils adjust from primary? Targeted inspections in one area could also help identify issues of teaching and leadership.
A reformed inspection regime has the potential to do all this, although some caution will be needed to ensure that the system does not become unbalanced. In principle, a more detailed report for parents in one area is a good idea, but resources are finite and it should not come at the cost of reports in another area. Every parent is entitled to as much information as possible about their child's education.
Provided Education Scotland is aware of this risk and does what it can to avoid it, the idea of more focused inspections is worth exploring. For young people living in Scotland's most deprived communities, education is often their route to a better life; an improved, more targeted inspection regime could help ensure that more of those young people realise their potential.
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