Revolution in the classroom begins – amid fears of failure

Budget cuts by cash-strapped councils could doom the new school curriculum to failure, education leaders have warned.

• Education secretary Michael Russell

As thousands of children returned to school yesterday for the first time under the Curriculum for Excellence, critics said falling teaching numbers and reductions in assistants and school finances could make it impossible to implement.

Education secretary Michael Russell visited Cardinal Newman School in Bellshill where he said the new system would bring "fantastic" examples of "imaginative" teaching to children across Scotland.

He launched DVDs of the new system in use in classrooms, to support teachers who still needed guidance and said that there was a "great deal of support".

But teachers said each department in every school was having to create new courses from scratch, forcing teachers to work extra hours every day well above their contracted time.

After years of planning, the new system, which was instigated under the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat government, is expected to be in every school in Scotland as pupils return from holidays.

Glasgow and North Lanarkshire children returned to school yesterday so were among the first to begin the new system. Pupils in other local authorities return later this week with many independent schools coming back over the next fortnight.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA), said problems would crop up because teachers will be forced to work longer hours to create new courses.

• Case study: How the new curriculum works in practice

"There won't be a problem on the first day, but problems will emerge a few months down the line," she said. "Some teachers are working up to two hours extra a day formulating new courses and that will take its toll."

SSTA members will vote on industrial action next month which could result in a work-to-rule over the lack of detail, training and support.

The curriculum has already been delayed a year after teachers warned there was too little time and too few resources to implement it properly.

School inspections have been suspended for the next term in secondaries to allow Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) staff to support teachers.

And new legislation for children with additional needs has been delayed by Mr Russell to ensure teachers only have one major initiative to introduce.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, said it would be surveying members to identify any problems, and he called for more details on new qualifications due in 2014. He said: "There are still very real concerns over the amount of time that teachers have had to work on Curriculum for Excellence developments.

"For an initiative often described as the most radical programme of change in our schools in a generation, Curriculum for Excellence has brought little dedicated funding and very few new resource materials.

"Teachers, in general, are supportive of the aims of Curriculum for Excellence, but they cannot be expected to deliver it on the cheap and without the time to work on implementing such radical changes to the learning and teaching process."

Labour said a fall in teacher numbers by 2,500 since the SNP came to power and council cuts meant the new curriculum could fail. Des McNulty, Labour education spokesman, added: "School budgets are under their tightest pressure than at any point in the last decade because the SNP have failed to prioritise our schools.

"The vital materials and information needed for the successful implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence have not yet been provided, and many teachers feel the support they were promised has not been delivered by the SNP."

Margaret Smith, Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said the way Mr Russell had handled the implementation of the new system was "shambolic".

She said: "As children return to school today, there are still no criteria for the new national exams replacing Standard grades. Teachers have to start teaching the new curriculum, but with no idea about the exams that they should be preparing children for.

"With the threat of strikes looming and confusion about the curriculum, there is no sense that the SNP has an overarching strategy to give parents any confidence that they are going to find a way out of this mess."

However, Mr Russell said: "The modern world is changing rapidly and what Scottish employers are looking for is evolving at the same rate. Our young people will need to be creative, resourceful, flexible, confident and responsible to succeed in the new global economy.

"Curriculum for Excellence is designed to do exactly this by bringing a new focus on the skills we want pupils to develop and changing the way they're taught to maximise the opportunities to build these skills.

There is a great deal of support available for teachers, schools and local authorities to help them make the most of Curriculum for Excellence, including new films of the curriculum in action from the Scottish Government and tailored support where requested from HMIe as promised in my ten-point plan."

Background

INTERNATIONAL studies over the past decade sparked calls for reform resulting in the Curriculum for Excellence.

Studies show Scotland is falling behind other nations in areas such as science and maths, and the most recent results have shown little progress.

Literacy surveys have also revealed the country has slipped behind international rivals.

The Pirls (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and Timss (Trends in International Maths and Science Survey) showed how Scottish education compared with other developed nations.

In 2006, Pirls demoted Scotland from 14th place in literacy and reading to 21st out of 40 countries. The Timss report of 2007 ranked Scotland 20th of 36 countries in maths performance at primary-five level and 22nd in science.

Those results prompted calls for improvement and reviews of areas such as how primary teachers are trained in science and maths. Currently, the former chief inspector of schools, Graham Donaldson, is overseeing such a review of teacher training.

Recently, education secretary Michael Russell announced Scotland would no longer take part in Timss or Pirls for cost reasons. However, it will continue in the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which also ranks Scotland below average in the teaching of several subjects, including maths.