It is too early to say what the proposed Centre of Teaching Excellence will mean for other national bodies such as Education Scotland, education secretary Jenny Gilruth has said.
Ms Gilruth also refused to be drawn on the likely cost of the Centre of Teaching Excellence, which was announced in a surprise move at the SNP annual conference in Aberdeen last week.
The issue was discussed in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon after Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy asked for an update on the proposed new body. She criticised the Scottish government for making the announcement to the SNP conference rather than Parliament, and for not consulting the teaching profession in advance.
Education Scotland is one of the national education bodies that have been facing reform since an initial announcement was made in June 2021, although much of the detail around its future is still contested and uncertain.
Ms Duncan-Glancy said: “We know that the education budget is stretched both centrally and in local authorities, so can the cabinet secretary confirm if the Centre of Teaching Excellence will replace an existing organisation or become an additional body? And can she say how much the government expects to spend on creating and running the new body?”
Centre of Teaching Excellence plan
A similar question was posed by Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr, who said: “Given that numerous education reports have raised concerns regarding duplication in government bodies, and the need for efficient spending, what is the expected cost of creating the centre? From where in the education budget will that be drawn? And what will the relationship to Education Scotland be?”
Ms Gilruth replied that the Centre of Teaching Excellence would be “co-designed with our teachers and professional associations”. She also said earlier that “my officials are currently engaging directly with teachers and, of course, the wider profession, local government and national education bodies”.
On potential “duplication” in the education system, she said: “Clearly the outcome of that engagement with the sector is going to impact on the precise form that the centre will take, how it will operate, when it will be operational, what its scope will be and, ultimately, how much it will cost.
“But I have to say that I hope there is consensual support for the premise behind the establishment of this centre [to] support our teaching profession with quality learning and teaching in our classrooms, which I hope [Mr Kerr] will agree is absolutely crucial in relation to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.”
Announcing the Centre of Teaching Excellence to the SNP conference last week, Ms Gilruth said it would help to make Scotland a “world leader in new approaches to learning and teaching”, as well as supporting the “national mission to close the attainment gap”.
In Parliament this afternoon, she said: “The expertise of our universities will really be invaluable as we shape the centre. In particular, we want to learn from the success, for example, of programmes such as Into Headship, which has been a hugely successful programme.
“The new centre will ensure research and evidence are also distilled into practical and digestible support for all teachers, no matter their career stage.”
