Greens blast government for sneaking out critical education report
The Scottish Government has come under fire from the Greens after it attempted to sneak out an education report, critical of current policy, without a press release or announcement.
The report by the Scottish Government’s own expert body on education, the International Council of Education Advisors (ICEA), advises the government “against becoming too focused on changing the structure of the education system when, arguably, the more important aspects are the culture and capacity in the system. This is a clear reference to the SNP's proposed education governance reforms, which would centralise more control over schools in the hands of Scottish ministers and civil servants.
It also raises concerns about the trend away from the “whole child” approach in Curriculum for Excellence towards their National Improvement Framework’s obsession with testing for the sake of measurement.
Ross Greer MSP, Scottish Greens’ education spokesperson, said:
“The government has shown complete disregard for transparency by trying to sneak out this report with no press release or announcement. They have gone through all the trouble, and cost, of convening a group of international experts on education, only to ignore their advice and attempt to bury it from the public eye.
“We already know from the Scottish Government’s own consultation that teachers, support staff and other education experts do not see the need for the widespread governance reforms that are being driven through. Now we know that the Scottish Government’s own experts do not see the need for these reforms either. As the experts have pointed out, it is capacity and culture within the education system that should be the focus. After a decade of cuts have left us without four thousand teachers, thousands of support staff and hundreds of additional support needs specialists, the SNP needs to tackle the biggest challenge in Scottish education, the consequence of their financial decisions in government."
Greer added:
“It is reassuring to see the government’s council of international experts call out the obsession with testing. The Scottish Government wants to see children sitting national tests as soon as they enter school in P1, followed by further national tests in P4, P7, and S3. This undermines the ‘whole child’ approach embedded in the Curriculum for Excellence that is underpinned by international best practice. It is teachers in the classroom who know best how to meet the needs of their pupils and they should be free to teach without the stress of national testing being held over their heads.”