Professor Ken Muir - author of a landmark 2022 report on education reform in Scotland - has questioned the “degree of independence” new legislation will give the schools inspectorate.
The chief inspector of the newly independent body would still have to seek approval from government ministers “to undertake certain things”, he said.
Speaking at a conference on inspection, Professor Muir welcomed the fact that the Scotland (Education) Bill, currently making its way through the Scottish Parliament, envisages the chief inspector being able to do what they deem “necessary or expedient for the purposes of the remit”.
However, he said he had concerns “below the surface of that”.
Question marks over independence of inspection
“I do feel that there are questions to be asked around the genuine nature of that independence,” he said.
Professor Muir made his comments at an online Scotland Policy Conferences event last week on the future of school inspection in Scotland, where former Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said school inspectorates should be prepared to speak “truth to power”, “be brave” and “ruffle feathers from time to time”.
Professor Muir said he had recommended - in his 2022 report Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education - that the new inspectorate “explore new models of inspection”, with a view to creating a “more supportive and collegiate inspection process”.
One way to do that was to involve teachers more in the inspection process. Associate assessors who joined inspection teams tended to be senior school leaders, such as deputes and headteachers, but Professor Muir argued there was a case for involving “the folk who are doing the difficult shift in the classrooms”.
Teachers, he said, “are very aware of what the issues are and are very aware of what some of the solutions are to these issues”.
Importance of empathy in school inspection
Professor Muir also stressed the importance of involving learners in inspection - and of inspectors showing “empathy”; this was the most important quality an inspector could have. Inspection should highlight where improvement was needed, but also give credit for the “improvement journey” a school had been on.
When asked if the word inspection should be “gracefully retired”, Professor Muir said: “I think there is a question about whether we refer to it as inspection.”
He said “reviews” was a potential alternative term, which was “softer” and “more collegiate”; however, he stressed that processes would still need to be “rigorous”.
Professor Muir expressed his disappointment that the role of chief inspector, when first advertised, had failed to attract enough applications.
He said the salary for the role, which ranged from £108,393 and £117,329, needed to be looked at again - but also that people were being put off applying because there was “trepidation” and “uncertainty” about the direction of travel in Scottish education.
“Some folk - and one or two who I’ve spoken to myself - are unhappy about throwing their hat into that ring until they get greater clarity as to what the direction of travel is,” he said.
“I think there is still a lot of uncertainty in the system.”
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