The reform of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland could be put at “significant risk” if existing organisations are “perceived to be designing their own reform”, two of the biggest names in Scottish education and members of the board tasked with taking forward the reform have warned.
Graeme Logan, the Scottish government’s director of learning, and Douglas Hutchison, Glasgow’s director of education and the president of education directors’ association Ades, sounded the alarm at the June meeting of the strategic board leading the replacement of the organisations.
The minutes of the meeting were revealed after a Tes Scotland Freedom of Information request.
At the meeting, Mr Hutchison also said there was “potential for criticism in Parliament” over the membership of the delivery boards - which sit below the strategic board - and this was a “significant risk”.
The Scottish government has committed to replacing the SQA and Education Scotland with three new national education bodies, following concern about the performance of the organisations during the pandemic, including the way the SQA handled the cancellation of the 2020 exams.
A strategic board - the Education Reform Programme Board - and three delivery boards have been set up “to lead, design and deliver this work”.
However, concerns have been raised about the make-up of the delivery boards, with opposition politicians accusing the government of “stuffing” them with “the people that are leading the failed organisations”.
The Qualifications Body Delivery Board is chaired by an SQA director, Mike Baxter, and the bulk of board members are SQA staff.
Now, the Tes Scotland FOI request has shown these concerns are shared by some of the biggest names in Scottish education, who also sit on the strategic board appointed to lead the reform.
Responding to the revelations on Twitter, for example, the University of Glasgow’s Professor Chris Chapman, who is one of the government’s international education advisers, said “many within and outwith the system” shared Mr Logan and Mr Hutchison’s concerns about the dominance of Education Scotland and the SQA on the reform boards. He added that the views were “widespread” and that the points had been made to the government “from many many sources”.
The minutes of the June meeting of the strategic board say that Mr Logan “noted the risk of having colleagues from existing bodies chairing the delivery boards” and that he highlighted “this could be perceived as existing organisations designing the new organisations”.
The minutes then say: “DH [Douglas Hutchison] agreed. There is a significant risk that ES and SQA are perceived to be designing their own reform.”
However, according to the minutes, the leaders of the existing organisations - the SQA’s Fiona Robertson and Education Scotland’s Gayle Gorman, who also sit on the strategic board - defended the inclusion of their staff on the delivery boards, arguing that “successful reform needs significant input and expertise from within the current organisations”.
The minutes say Mr Logan was “sensitive to staff wellbeing and expertise, and acknowledged that staff need to play a part”, but they also highlight: “[Douglas Hutchison] agreed that expertise of the organisations is key, but we risk the whole programme if stakeholders believe that reform process lacks grit. There is potential for criticism in Parliament and this is a significant risk.”
Ms Gorman, chief executive of Education Scotland, is then noted as saying: “Criticism will be for a brief period and our communication strategy should be used to mitigate against this.”
Earlier this week, prominent academic Professor Mark Priestley warned that the reform was in danger of becoming “a rebranding exercise”.
He also said the planned new education agency - which is one of three new bodies expected to emerge following the reforms - was “at risk of becoming a Frankenstein organisation that has far too many disparate functions and an unclear sense of its overarching mission”.
When asked about the dominance of the SQA and Education Scotland on the delivery boards during an interview with Tes Scotland last month, the education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, insisted: “I’m in charge of education reform in Scotland; I will deliver the change that is required.”
