Two of the Scottish government’s own education advisers have taken to social media to hit out at the decision to withdraw funding support for teachers who engage in master’s-level learning, saying that professional learning is “even more vital in challenging times” and that it has a big impact on student outcomes.
The Scottish government wrote to education directors, councils and initial teacher education providers earlier this month to say it was unable to provide the funding this financial year that “allows teachers to engage with master’s-level learning”.
The letter says the decision has been made “against a challenging financial position” and that there are “several pressures on budgets”, including the recent teacher pay award.
The government says it is open to considering reinstating funding for the programme - of £700,000 a year - “should future budget provisions allow”.
Responding to the news - first reported in The Herald - Professor Graham Donaldson, the former head of the schools’ inspectorate in Scotland and now one of the government’s team of international education advisers, said in a tweet that the decision was “very disappointing”.
He added: “Professional learning is even more vital in challenging times. Stark contrast to Wales’s support for Masters!”
Chris Chapman - professor of educational policy and practice at the University of Glasgow, who is also on the government’s International Council of Education Advisers - said that educational research showed professional learning has “twice the effect size of other activities in terms of impact on student outcomes”.
He added: “History tells us that when resources are scarce [the] most important activities are sacrificed first”.
In another tweet, he said that he hoped the decision was “a short-term, temporary blip rather than something more long term, which would set us adrift of the international evidence, direction of travel and advice”.
Mark Priestley - professor of education at the University of Stirling - said the programme had “produced huge gains...for a significant number of teachers, for a relatively small investment”.
He added: “Not the wisest decision made in recent years by the Scottish Government”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The recent teacher pay deal is the largest in twenty years and was made against a challenging financial backdrop. It is in that context that we have had to reconsider funding for master’s-level learning for teachers this year.
“We continue to value the importance of professional development for teachers and we are investing £800,000 this year in the Into Headship programme to support future school leaders.”
The independent panel that looked into career pathways for teachers - and that published its final report in 2019 - recommended that “further steps should be taken to promote teaching as a master’s profession”.
The report said that “a master’s qualification is not the sole marker of a highly competent teacher”, but that “master’s learning supports and develops critical thinking around key practices and issues pertinent to the delivery of high-quality learning, teaching and leadership”.
