By Dour Marr

The Scottish Government has staked a great deal on improving and streamlining the education system. The main impetus is the persistent disparity in achievement between children from the lowest income homes and their better off counterparts.

Many of us who have tried with varying degree of success, to improve achievement and narrow the attainment gap, sometimes question the Government’s understanding of the complexity of the Herculean task it has set. Success is bound up with the wider economic and social problems that bedevil Scotland’s most deprived communities and their schools.

Also, the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms have so far failed to deliver the desired transformational changes to the why, what and how of learning. Energy and time have been frittered away addressing tangential issues and justifiable teacher concerns over workload, bureaucracy and over-complex assessment. There is little evidence so far of bridging the attainment gap.

There is no simple solution and the jury will be out for some time on the impact of Cabinet Secretary John Swinney’s recent advice on reducing workload and bureaucracy. If we are to make inroads, there needs to be an unwavering focus on the contribution of teachers and what goes on daily in the only place that can make a difference: the classroom. We need more teachers, highly skilled, receptive to change and sufficiently light on their feet to respond promptly to political, economic, technological and social challenges.

The teachers’ professional body, The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), has taken commendable steps to develop a variety of non - traditional routes into the profession. The Government’s Transition Training Fund encourages and supports those considering a career change to teaching. There have been some encouraging signs in Aberdeenshire where a number of former oil workers are retraining as teachers.

Mr Swinney, in announcing a review of school governance in his Delivery Plan alongside the Programme for Government published yesterday, is determined to deliver a radically improved, simpler and more coherent education system.

One of the major disappointments of CfE has been the continuing fragmentation in the system. An unbroken progression from early years through primary and secondary into further and higher education is as much chimerical as aspirational. In secondary schools the curriculum is as fragmented as ever, with many youngsters struggling to make connections between subjects studied.

Mr Swinney may wish to consider the structural causes of this lack of coherence and fragmentation. Early years’ practitioners, for example, need to be seen as a key part of the teaching profession, as do lecturers in further education (FE). Many lecturers regularly teach school age children and young people. FE lecturers would benefit from working according to common professional standards shared with colleagues in other sectors. Compulsory registration and regulation in the sector would help increase confidence amongst users and the wider public.

A single body for the registration and regulation of all those working in education, including pupil support assistants, would go some distance to develop the system.

In addition to a common, shared set of professional standards, a single regulatory body would offer the prospect of coherence and consistency in overseeing the professional development and learning of staff at every stage. It is already happening in Wales.

The Government's commitment to social justice and closing the attainment gap is backed by significant investment. Good intentions and finance, while welcome, are unlikely to be enough in themselves. Teaching is, above all, a people business and much depends on the number and professional and personal qualities of those who work daily with children and young people.

The Government needs to work closely with professional bodies to address shortages through simplifying routes into teaching, particularly for those with skills in areas such as information technology. The composition of the teaching force also requires attention. How are more men and representatives of ethnic minorities to be attracted into the profession?

Our committed and highly skilled practitioners are the key to turning the rhetoric of attainment and aspiration into reality. Any national strategy must place teachers, lecturers and the classroom at the centre. Success, however, will rest upon recruitment, shared and coherent professional standards and regulation and well-funded, systematic updating of practitioners' knowledge and skills to meet the challenges ahead.

Doug Marr is a commentator and former secondary school headteacher.