Scotland’s education secretary has hit out at the “culture of negativity” and the “fundamentally negative political debate” that he says surrounds Scottish education.
Speaking at the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) annual conference in Cumbernauld yesterday, John Swinney called on the profession to speak out, share their lived experiences and tell the real story of what is going on in Scottish schools.
He said that in order to ensure that the voice of the profession is heard, he would be taking forward plans to make it a legal requirement for all councils to employ a chief education officer.
A requirement for such a role was first lobbied for by ADES back in 2015 amid fears that local authority cuts could lead to a lack of education involvement in key decisions at local authority level. Mr Swinney said provision had been made for the role in The Education (Scotland) Act 2016 and this would now be taken forward.
Teachers ‘need to tell the real story’
Mr Swinney’s remarks follow the recent widespread coverage in the media of research by the University of Dundee’s Professor Jim Scott that found attainment at levels three to five had dropped by at least 32.9 per cent for each level since Curriculum for Excellence was introduced in 2013.
Mr Swinney highlighted that there had been very little coverage of “the pretty significant remarks” made by Professor Mark Priestley and his colleagues from the University of Stirling. These “challenged quite vigorously” Professor Scott’s research, he said, and highlighted the “limitations” in his methodology.
Writing for Tes Scotland, the academics said: “We have some concerns about the methodological rigour of the reports used as the main evidence for supporting an argument that the Curriculum for Excellence is failing young people in Scotland.”
Mr Swinney said that Professor Priestley’s research was not a “fanzine” for Scottish government policy and it raised important challenges around performance and the implementation and delivery of Curriculum for Excellence, but it was not “as critical” and therefore had not received the same widespread coverage.
He added: “For the sake of the quality of the debate in Scottish education, we have to hear the voice of the profession loud and clear.
“That is what should drive this debate - the highest quality of education analysis. Yes, there will be debate; yes, there will be discussion - we should not be frightened of that. But we need to hear the lived experience of the profession and the thinking of the profession assisting us as we undertake our journey.”
However, one teacher commenting on Twitter pointed out that it was nigh on impossible for teachers to speak about their experiences in school. “The suppression is horrific,” he said.
Another teacher said “are you sure you really want to?”, suggesting that Mr Swinney might not like what he heard if Scottish teachers did feel free to speak up.
Last year there were claims of a “culture of fear” in Scottish education - although the message from the Scottish government is that it wants to empower teachers.
