Hyslop facing revolt over schools reform

The policy – a massive overhaul of education in Scotland's schools – is due to be up and running by August next year.

But in a major challenge to education secretary Fiona Hyslop, Lindsay Paterson, one of Scotland's most distinguished educational policy academics, said the new curriculum was "vague", "confused" and likely to turn schools "upside down".

His concerns were echoed by the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, which warned of a "postcode lottery" for students, while the former principal of one of Scotland's top private schools suggested the sector may simply ignore the curriculum.

Opposition politicians joined the clamour of voices warning that a lack of action to address concerns over the changes will lead to disaster in Scotland's classrooms.

Writing in today's Scotsman, Prof Paterson, professor of educational policy at Edinburgh University, said the "grand aims" of the curriculum were "so vague as to be unexceptional, and are incapable of providing clear guidance as to what will happen next August when the new curriculum is meant to start".

He also raised doubts about the lack of clarity behind efforts to increase teacher autonomy, an absence of guidance on how to improve standards of literacy and numeracy, and said the reform neglects "the crucial importance of subjects".

The new curriculum was due to have been introduced into Scotland's schools last month, but was delayed by a year after fears there was not enough time to implement it properly.

Members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA) have already threatened industrial action over the issue.

At the union's annual conference in May, members voted to ballot for action if moves were not made to provide more information and training.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the SSTA, said teachers needed more concrete guidance about the Curriculum for Excellence and warned of a "postcode lottery" of provision.

"There's so little information out there that local authorities and headteachers are filling the gaps and creating huge variations," she said.

"If we end up with 32 methods of sorting the curriculum, one for each local authority, we are going to be very lucky; we are much more likely to end up with 400, one for every school."

And she added: "What this government inherited was a system of aims and objectives and not much else and they've continued with that process."

She said teachers needed to be brought on board if the plan was to be successful.

Frank Gerstenberg, former principal of George Watson's College in Edinburgh, said:

"The lack of emphasis on knowledge, and on the very basics of the curriculum is frightening.

"I think the majority of independent schools will not pay a great deal of attention at the moment because it is so vague. They want more meat on the bones."

The new system was born under the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat administration, amid fears that Scotland was falling behind other countries in educational attainment.

The Curriculum for Excellence is to cover a greater age range, from three to 18 years, and include the exams system. The current guidelines cover five to 14 years, stopping before Standard Grades.

However, its introduction has proved controversial, due to there being little information published on the specifics of what will be taught.

Rhona Brankin, Labour's education spokeswoman, accused the SNP government of mishandling the curriculum her party set in motion and said some of it was "gobbledegook".

"We are on the cusp of the biggest change in education in recent years, yet the SNP seem to think this can be achieved without adequate funding.

"This government has under-funded the curriculum changes and a lack of leadership from the education minister is clearly denting confidence in the reforms." Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the new curriculum would only reinforce what good teachers do already.

"There's been a lot of cross-party goodwill behind the Curriculum for Excellence, however, there's been a lot of hype surrounding its introduction and very little evidence that actual delivery is going to live up to that level of expectation."

Business leaders yesterday also backed calls for more information to be made available.

Iain McMillan, CBI Scotland director, said: "We support the principles of the Curriculum for Excellence but we are aware that there are concerns about a lack of detail at this stage and we would say that detail has to be made public very soon."

And Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, Scotland's biggest teaching union, said implementation would take more time.

He said: "Curriculum for Excellence is a process which is going to take significant time to roll out, it is not a big bang."

And he echoed fears about financing, warning that teacher training budgets are the first education item to be cut in recessionary times.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The fundamental principle of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is to trust teachers. Our guidance supports them to develop the learning experience of their children in and beyond the classroom.

"CfE is being developed with very close involvement and leadership alongside key Scottish education agencies and trade unions to ensure CfE will provide the change needed within Scotland's education. We have received long and continued support from these bodies.

"In April this year, the Scottish Government issued a coherent set of experiences and outcomes which demonstrate how the skills of children from three to 18 years will develop and standards will be raised.

"This was completed with unparalleled involvement of hundreds of teachers, colleges and early years' providers."