It’s fascinating and often surprising to see which Tes Scotland articles are read and discussed the most. After more than 15 years of writing about Scottish education, though, I can say with some confidence that there is a certain type of piece that will always cause a ripple.
A piece on any subject area or sector where staff have felt underappreciated, marginalised or ignored altogether will always get a lot of traction. That has been the case in recent weeks, for example, when we have written and commissioned pieces on home economics, school libraries and Scots language.
There is a common feel to the online comments about such pieces: delight that they are finally getting some attention (or more constructive attention than some are used to) but also annoyance that such pieces are rare.
For all that Scottish education vaunts itself as a broad and inclusive domain, there is a sense that, ultimately, certain more “traditional” aspects of the curriculum are ultimately deemed more important. Or, at least, that people with the clout to do something about it will not try nearly hard enough.
Just this week, my colleague Emma Seith wrote about an Education Scotland report which found that a focus on literacy, numeracy and wellbeing in schools in the wake of the Covid pandemic could sometimes be to the detriment of other subjects. Yet, she was surprised to find that this did not seem to have galvanised the national inspection and curriculum body into very much action.
Also this week, secondary headteacher John Rutter wrote about innovative ways in which the offerings of a secondary school could be broadened. But he warned that the responsibility for this could not be left entirely to schools, that there must be a “similar vision from those in charge of education at a higher level”.
Sadly, however, he surveyed an education landscape where a “continuing lack of recognition” for the achievement of earning a Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award - or other awards that similarly offer experiences that may not otherwise be on offer in a school - “may signal the death knell for the higher levels of the award in schools such as mine”.
The possible sidelining of awards such as DofE - a trend which Professor Ken Muir’s recent report on education reform in Scotland was concerned about - seemed like a “retrograde step” to Rutter.
Covid and, in turn, the publication in March of the Muir report, have opened the door to reform in Scottish education. Rather than extensive restructuring of the curriculum, however, what is really needed is a change of mindset in some quarters.
In other words, let’s see a shared determination that - even when a pandemic and budget cuts have tested resolve to the limit - everyone really is committed to a curriculum where the notion of achievement is far broader than it used to be.
Henry Hepburn is Scotland editor at Tes. He tweets @Henry_Hepburn
