Winds of change badly needed to improve Scottish education

IT HAS taken a while, but it can now be said with certainty that there is a broadly based consensus in Scotland that our education system, particularly at school level, is not performing as well as it should be in its central task of preparing our children for the future.

For too long the attitude in this country had been that all was well, that Scottish education, revered around the world, was rather like Mary Poppins; practically perfect in every way and therefore there was no need for change or reform.

Recent studies have shown that we are not showing the progress in education that is being made in other European countries, including England, and this has led to some welcome soul-searching amongst educationalists and policy-makers.

Part of that process has been the call for reform of the way children are taught which has led to the development of the Curriculum for Excellence which some say will liberate teachers and pupils from the strait jacket of the current subject-based teaching but which others, most notably Professor Lindsay Paterson of Edinburgh University, belive to be vague, intellectually bereft and opaque.

However, there is a second aspect to this debate and that is over the structures under which education operates. We currently have policy set by Holyrood ministers, administered by 32 local authorities of vastly varying size across Scotland, and standards tested by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education.

It is little surprise that within this overweight bureaucratic set-up that the head teachers – whose leadership skills determine whether schools prosper or fail – feel that they have little scope to use their initiative or to innovate.

For this reason the bold initiative taken by SNP-led East Lothian Council with the subtle but significant encouragement of Nationalist education secretary Michael Russell, to look at a trust schools model, with power devolved to clusters of institutions, was a welcome breath of fresh air.

Similarly, the news that, prompted by a former education minister, Peter Peacock, Labour is considering a plan to cut the number of education authorities from 32 to 12 and giving more power to heads through direct funding from the Scottish Government is to be welcomed.

Although the plans are at an early stage it is encouraging that Des McNulty, Labour's education spokesman, appears to be supportive.

The benefits of the plan would be that it would retain the best education officials from councils, it would give school leaders more scope to tailor the teaching to local circumstance and parental demand and it would, by virtue of a reduction in the number of education bureaucrats, save money.

With Labour's idea, the SNP's plans, and Tory calls for great autonomy for schools, it has become clear that a wind of change has begun to blow through Scottish education. We need more details of all of these proposals so we can have the vigorous debate which is now essential if we are to restore Scotland's educational reputation.