Scotland’s new chief inspector has promised to shake off accusations that Education Scotland is too close to government, predicting a dramatic shift in approach that will give him an “independent voice” more like his equivalent in England.

In his first interview since taking up the post on an interim basis last month, Graeme Logan also tackled some of Scottish education’s most controversial issues, arguing that standardised national assessments would reduce the burden on schools and that devolving more power to headteachers would make leadership jobs more attractive.

The EIS teaching union told MSPs last November that Education Scotland had become “increasingly politicised” and unwilling to oppose government, but Mr Logan said: “I want to make sure that we…provide a challenging voice to the system.”

After being asked if he would act more like Ofsted in England, where successive chief inspectors have been outspoken about the education system’s perceived failings, Mr Logan said it was “very clear” that the chief inspector should have “an independent voice”, used to “challenge where it is required”.

He insisted, however, that splitting Education Scotland’s inspection and curriculum-development roles - the recent Education Governance Review ultimately decided against such a move - would have been a “retrograde step”, as combining them is common internationally.

A ‘revitalised’ agency

Mr Logan, a former primary headteacher who stepped up from a strategic director role at Education Scotland, said people had in the past been “unsure of what the agency is for”, but that the governance review would “revitalise” it and make it more relevant to schools.

“The whole model of operating will change,” he said. “The days of us sitting at the centre and firing out lots of stuff are gone.”

Education Scotland was criticised heavily in Parliament last year after it emerged that there were 20,000 pages of Curriculum for Excellence guidance on its website, but Mr Logan said: “We will no longer be flooding the system with guidance and materials [teachers] have to search for.”

Instead, Education Scotland will work with the new Regional Improvement Collaboratives to “get much closer to the action” and set up local support systems for teachers, as there is currently “far too much variability” in the help offered locally.

EIS union general secretary Larry Flanagan said that Education Scotland must now “define itself in very practical terms” around support provided to schools on assessment and curriculum and provide “real critical challenge to politicians and civil servants”.

This is an edited version of an article in the 18 August edition of Tes Scotland. Subscribers can read the full article here. To subscribe, click here. This week’s Tes Scotland magazine is available at all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here.

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