MSPs told to act on fears that ‘education is failing young people’

Education in Scotland is not thriving - and fails the majority of young people.

That was the message from members of the Scottish Young Parliament when they gave evidence to the MSPs that sit on Holyrood’s Education, Children and Young People Committee.

There was “an obsession with trying to hammer square pegs into circular fittings when it comes to education”, said Beinn Grant, MSYP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

He added: “We have a system that is geared towards 10 per cent of students and does not work for the majority. It is about time that we recognised that.”

Education ‘not meeting young people’s needs’

Ellie Craig - chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament and the MSYP for Glasgow Cathcart - said in her opening statement: “Clearly, our education system is not meeting the needs of the young people who are in it.”

Young people “do not feel that they have agency in their school environment”, she later added.

Most schools had student councils but the feedback on how meaningful those were was “very mixed”, she said, and the pressure of exams and qualifications meant they were “not really seen as a priority”.

Mr Grant said that from the ages of five to 17 young people lived in a system “dictated by bells and timetables” but had “very little say in the matter”.

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He added: “In recent months, I have heard a lot about policing by consent, but why do we never talk about education by consent? After all, education is where we spend the majority of our lives until the age of 18.”

However, that the system is not working for many young people is not news, the young people pointed out.

Time to ‘be bold’

During the session last week, Mr Grant highlighted that since 2021 he had been involved in consultations and reports, from the independent review of exams and assessment led by Professor Louise Hayward, to the recent “national discussion” on education.

He said: “What young people think about education is clearly documented, there are masses of reports and documents to state that.

“We have seen time and again that education is failing young people and that education in Scotland is not performing as well as it should or could. Some of the ideas were already outlined in the Hayward review and in the national discussion.”

He added: “It is about time that were bold and started enacting some of them and following some of the recommendations that were made through massive consultation with the whole country, including thousands of young people.”

The Hayward review highlighted the “significant amount of time spent on rehearsal for high-stakes examinations”.

It suggested scrapping exams below Higher level; making two-year courses the default; and introducing a wider range of assessment, as well as a leaver certificate - the Scottish Diploma of Achievement - that would recognise more than just academic attainment.

But while the government is pushing ahead with replacing the Scottish Qualifications Authority, there is no concrete plan to reform how students in upper secondary are assessed.

Violence in school

During the discussion, the MSYPs were also asked about violence in school.

They said that other young people were not raising this as an issue with them, but that this was probably because they “come to us with the underlying issue rather than the symptom”.

This included deteriorating mental health; young people had not recovered from the isolation they faced during the pandemic, said Ms Craig.

Edinburgh Central MSYP Beau Johnston said that youth work was “a big part of the solution” to violence in schools but that funding cuts were damaging the sector’s ability to support young people, adding: “I do not think that it is a coincidence that it has potentially increased, given that there have been cuts to youth work funding - it has not come out of the blue.”

Youth work provided “early intervention support for young people who face difficult circumstances, as well as friendships and one-to-one relationship-based support”.

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