Don Ledingham: 'Successful schools escape bureaucracy and build ties with community'

THROUGHOUT the world, educational governance is under intense scrutiny. The common factor is a dissatisfaction with the centralised bureaucracy which characterises so many of our systems and stifles innovation, local control and diversity.

Allied to this exploration of the principles of governance is a recognition that the costs of a centralised bureaucracy must be reduced to reflect the financial reality which is impacting upon public services.

The evolving model of "Community Ownership of Schools" being developed in Scotland is in response to a challenge presented by the 2007 OECD Report on the Quality and Equity of Scottish Education.

A key finding of that report was that the Scottish system was essentially a "command and control" model with relatively little autonomy or accountability being transferred to schools. This leads to a lack of innovation or diversity between schools.

Community Ownership of Schools rests upon a governance model whereby a local community takes on responsibility for delivering an agreed set of outcomes for its local primary schools and associated secondary school.

This approach reflects a genetic link to a time when Scottish education was seen to be an international beacon for high-quality education through the "Parish School" system. Parish schools succeeded because they were so closely associated with their communities and accountability for success lay at the school's doorstep.

A key feature of the presentation will be to explore how the development of educational policy and practice will have change over the next ten years. Countries who can enable, encourage and capitalise upon local innovation and improvement, within existing resources, will move beyond those who have relied upon regular funding injections.

• Don Ledingham is director of education at East Lothian Council. This is taken from his blog: edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/2010/02/