Since the beginning of 2021, Tes Scotland has asked 10 key figures in Scottish education what they would do first if they became education secretary. Today Shirley-Anne Somerville actually finds herself in that position, having replaced John Swinney.

So where would some of the stalwarts of Scottish education - as well as some newer faces - focus their attention?

They shared their thoughts when they featured in the weekly Tes Scotland magazine 10 Questions feature, making the case for a range of priorities, from turning assessment “upside-down”, to abolishing inspection and empowering schools and their communities.

They shared their ideas at various points between January - when the most recent Covid lockdown had just started - to this month, when fears over the prospect of another qualifications fiasco are rife in Scotland.

What would you do if you became Scotland’s education secretary?

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union (to be featured in 21 May issue of Tes Scotland)

“Employ more teachers, reduce class sizes and ensure there is adequate support for children with additional needs.

“In the afternoon, I would sort out the qualifications system.

“I was involved in all the [Curriculum for Excellence] discussions, so I know exactly where the qualifications system has gone wrong. We were talking about exit qualifications, which is the Finnish system, and that is what we should still be doing.

“We have three years of secondary working your way through a qualifications ladder and it detracts from deeper learning.”

Pauline Stephen, chief executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland

“I’d focus on the ‘how’, on really high-quality, evidence-informed inputs - what do teachers do and how do they do it? - and very quickly move on to: how do we organise ourselves to give teachers the time and space to do the ‘how’ really, really well? There are some fundamental questions there about how how schools is organised, how teachers’ time is organised - some really big, scary stuff that I think needs to be unpicked.

“Then, very swiftly, I’d want to ask about all things additional support needs (ASN). We need to look to how we change the conversation about ASN from seeing it as ‘we teach children and then we think about additional support needs’, to flipping that on its head. We’ve got to move beyond a tolerance or acceptance of difference to actually understanding the range of learners we have in front of us.”

Carrie Lindsay, president of education directors’ body ADES, and director of education and children’s services at Fife Council

“I would probably do some kind of listening exercise to inform an ambitious vision for education coming out of the pandemic, so we can think longer-term and move away from the quick fixes that have been necessary recently.

“I would probably also look at the allocation of resources to education and where we are targeting that.”

Pauline Walker, headteacher of the Royal High School in Edinburgh, and chair of the BOCSH group of heads

“I would review assessment - it needs to be reviewed and revamped and turned upside-down. We can’t really do the broad general education differently if we are still working towards this antiquated system in the senior phase.

“It’s the fact that we still have this big-bang formative-assessment exam at the end that’s not taking any account of the development of skills and different ways of showing what young people have been learning. The impact of that could not have been clearer than last year when the pass rate went up - that wasn’t because teachers were cheating, it was because pupils did not have to shuffle into an exam hall. We set them up to fail because of the [current exam] system.

“We know universities are doing their assessments online - students are doing vivas online - and that’s a really successful way of assessing young people: just asking them what they know.”

Angus Maclennan, headteacher of virtual school e-Sgoil 

”Parity of esteem for applied learning and academic subjects is the first thing I would bring in. The right amount of funding and positive promotion of such courses would do more to address the attainment gap than anything else I can think of, because it would lead to pupils engaging in courses that actually appeal to them and are useful to them.”

Sharon McLellan, primary headteacher and president of body AHDS

“I would truly empower schools by handing the reins to schools and their communities, and I would abolish inspection.

“Education has become too politicised - the public and politicians need to put their trust in schools and school leaders. I would take away the politicisation of education, put the professionalism back and let people like me get on with the job we are paid to do - so, if I was education secretary, I might do myself out of a job.

“You don’t go to a doctor and tell him or her how to do their job but, when it comes to education, everybody seems to be an expert because they went to school. Just give us the trust and empower us to do what we need to do.”

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association

“There should be a lead teacher for every subject in secondary; at the moment, the only way you can get promotion is to join management. And class contact time should be reduced to 20 hours a week. Those two go hand in hand: value the teacher and make sure they have time to do the job properly.”

Iain MacRitchie, founder of mentoring charity MCR Pathways

“I would reframe education content into two distinct areas. There are human skills that we need to teach and there are technical skills that will lead to employment and industry. As an employer, I need people who can communicate, relate and build relationships because, in any sector, the human skills are critically important and they lead to the ability to do projects - but we don’t teach them enough.

“The second is technical skills and future employment - we really need to look at what’s required in industry and it may mean a bit of a curriculum upgrade.”

Eileen Prior, executive director of Scottish parents’ organisation Connect

“I would take the Parental Involvement Act and replace it with an Education Partnership Act. Parents and families don’t need legislation to be involved in their children’s education - that’s what they do. What we need is something that says schools and nurseries need to work with parents and families, and form partnerships, because [schools] can’t do their jobs properly unless they do. We need to turn it around.

“At the moment, the way the act is framed is very tight and process-focused, as if having a parent council is the end game; it’s not. The important group is the parent forum, and how schools and nurseries engage with all the parents and carers.

“If we learn anything from the past year, it has to be that parents stepped up and were put through really difficult times. We have heard from parents who feel bereft because they were immersed in their children’s learning and now they are maybe hearing from the school once a week.

“Children do better when schools and families work in partnership and parents are fully involved - and a lot of schools and teachers already understand that.”

Fhiona Mackay, director of SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages

“I would do everything in my power to keep the teaching profession safe right now. In terms of languages, I would want to keep on protecting them as an intrinsic part of the curriculum. Their place in the curriculum is still fragile - [the 1+2 languages policy] means that we’ve come a long way but there’s still much to be done. I would extend support for 1+2 to make sure that it has a legacy.”

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