Exclusive:Schools chief vows to limit iPads in primary schools
The new head of education for Glasgow, John McGhee, has outlined his plans for the city’s schools that involve going back to basics
The head of education for Scotland’s largest local authority has said he plans to overhaul the use of iPads in schools as he urged caution over the use of tech in classrooms.
John McGhee has taken over the role of executive director of education for the city, which was the first to introduce devices for every pupil from P6.
Younger primary pupils share one device between five learners while nursery teachers are given an iPad to use with children.
Now, nearly 10 years on from the then-groundbreaking iPad roll out, Mr McGhee said teachers must be “cautious” about the way devices are used in schools.
In a wide-ranging interview with Scotland on Sunday, he also said that he wanted to bring philosophy back into secondary education to expose young people to “real thinkers” and said that poverty was sometimes “used as an excuse” when schools fail children by not supporting them to read fluently.
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While Mr McGhee praises iPad use in secondary schools, the education director said he will aim to limit pupils’ use of tablets in primary schools.
Mr McGhee, who has been teaching for 30 years, revealed he has effectively banned iPads in council nurseries.
Nursery staff have been asked not to show children either mobile phones or iPads.
He said: “That went down really well in the room, because I was validating what, fundamentally, the nursery workers know - that actually human-to-human relationships are the most powerful thing you can do.”
“Obviously Glasgow was at the forefront,” he said, “But that was about digital learning, and it came into its own during covid.
“I'll follow the science on this as much as possible, but my gut is telling me that we'll have to re-evaluate the amount of exposure children have got to digital devices.
“We can't un-invent something. We can't exclude children from having the same access to the resources that other young people have got.
Mr McGhee added: “There are healthy uses of ICT and there are unhealthy uses of ICT, and we need to be really careful that what we are using ICT for is healthy.”
The former maths and computing teacher was once responsible for buying in ICT for the city.
As told in yesterday’s Scotsman, Mr McGhee has cancelled the city’s contract for the maths app Sumdog.
However, he believes the technology is of benefit for older pupils.
“The iPads and senior school are a cracking idea,” he said. “It really organises kids’ work.”
Mr McGhee, while teaching, found being able to leave voice notes to be an extremely effective way of marking and giving feedback.
He praises software when it is “right and can do something better than a human being”.
However, he added: “We can’t ignore it but I think we just need to be cautious, which is why we need to bring philosophy back into secondary education.
“Because we can do something, should we do something? These are distinctly philosophical questions and allowing children to have the ability to ask those questions.”
Mr McGhee said his first priority when taking over headships in both St Andrew’s Secondary and John Paul Academy was to close and reopen the school libraries.
The refurbishment included removing all computers from those libraries.
“Children would access IT everywhere,” he said. “My love of a library when I was a wee boy was losing myself for hours in a book.
“I wasn’t unique in that. For my friends and I, it was the only time we were quiet.”
Mr McGhee is also critical of Curriculum for Excellence, saying it gives too much autonomy to schools with no clear idea of how to achieve its key aims.
He said: “There wasn't enough attention to rigour and how you ensure children could read so the literacy outcomes are clear.
“In that regard, Curriculum for Excellence has not served us well, I don't think it's done what it needed to do.
“And we can look at international studies - we’re not flying in any of these.
“Children have to be able to read, and have to be able to read deeply and to understand things.
“If we think of society in terms of politicians saying certain things and people believing it, when you read deeply, you're less prone to those arguments.
“My hypothesis would be very strongly that that's to do with how well you can read, and read deeply.”
Mr McGhee has been a teacher since 1993.
His first job was in St Gerard’s in Govan where “I got my love of Glasgow”.
It was a small school of 200 pupils but demonstrated societal issues common across Glasgow such as addiction and poverty.
He believes poverty is used as an excuse when schools fail children by not supporting them to read fluently.
“I think poverty sometimes is overused as an absolute excuse for every ill that we've got,” Mr McGhee said.
“When people say there are schools where children are coming out not able to read, and they blame it on poverty, I think that's an excuse that I'm not willing to abide by.
“Does it have an impact in terms of poverty related attainment gap?
“Yes. But we're not talking about African levels of poverty here. As long as we can get children to school, they should be able to read.”
Tackling how to correctly support additional needs pupils is an “absolute priority”, Mr McGhee added.
Currently, he said, 99 per cent of children are educated in mainstream nurseries but at primary level “panic sets in”.
Key transition stages must be managed better, he added, and parents must be able to feel confident that mainstream is working for their children.
He said: “We’ve got the presumption of mainstream, which I believe to be correct and the right approach.
“If I could get a billion pounds right now, and I could build additional support need schools, I wouldn't.
“The problem is we've not got it right in terms of delivery.”
Mr McGhee said the rise in numbers of pupils with ASN is not a political issue but one that educators must get right.
Glasgow City Council is working with Glasgow University on research in the area, looking at potential solutions for support.
He also said schools must have a “clear line of sight” to successful employment for pupils.
Mr McGhee is now sitting on the Glasgow Economic Leadership Board, a first for the education department.
He hopes this will lead to clearer direction in modern apprenticeships and working with colleges and universities.
The executive director is also calling for a redevelopment of senior phase of secondary school.
Referencing Professor Louise Hayward’s report on qualifications and assessment in Scotland, which proposes replacing the exam-heavy Scottish system with a Scottish Diploma of Achievement, Mr McGhee said: “I would challenge the new cabinet secretary, because we’re going nowhere on implementing Hayward.
“I challenged the previous education secretary on it too. Here I am, 30 years after the Howie report, finding another government minister kicking at a good report in the long grass.”
The current exams system, he said, only supports around 40 per cent - “if that” - of schools leavers and “the rest of the young people, just by dint of their character, find their way in life”.
He said that, while he agrees with the recently agreed reduction in class contact time to 21 hours, “I simply don't believe should be doing that without some level of service reform in the midst of it”.
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