Puttnam hoping film can lead to a revamp of education system

A FILM developed by Oscar-winning director Lord Puttnam calling for radical changes to the education system will receive a big-screen premiere in Scotland next week.

We Are The People We've Been Waiting For – described as the educational equivalent of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth – tells the stories of five teenagers and concludes that the current system is not working.

The landmark documentary – said to find common educational themes "across nations and generations" – will be screened on the eve of a major conference, Raising Our Game.

The conference examines the educational challenges ahead in Scotland by drawing on experiences from both our own schools and further afield.

One speaker, Dugald Forbes, is rector of Kirkcudbright Academy, seen as Scotland's most successful and innovative school of recent times. Radical changes to the curriculum and school structure delivered "staggering and sustained improvements" in performance.

The documentary film – developed by Lord Puttnam and supported by Richard Branson – argues for a higher status for vocational education. This is one of the key planks in the revolutionary approach at Kirkcudbright, described as a "remarkable success" in an academic report.

Lord Puttnam said of the film: "It's about opportunity offered, opportunity denied – and it's about change. We do not yet have an education system that works – despite everybody's best efforts." In publicity for the film, Richard Branson said: "A lot of education is about keeping us occupied, not really teaching or inspiring us."

Ross Martin, of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy, which is organising the film screening and conference, said: "There is no doubt that education systems either side of the border are failing. In Scotland, we are failing a significant proportion of our young people – you can see that through truancy rates and disengagement from the system.

"As a result, it is also failing local economies because it is not providing the skill sets that young people need to work in that economy. Lots of school pupils I meet want to talk about setting up their own business and there is nothing in school that prepares them for that."

Mr Martin, a former education spokesman for Scottish local authorities, said there was room for huge improvement in the way Scottish education was both designed and delivered.

"At the conference, we want to shine a light on Kirkcudbright, because they deserve it. We want to show others that there is change happening and that innovation can be successful – if others want to be brave, there are people who can help them."