Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning
Holyrood Education Conference
PRIORITES FOR EDUCATION
February 23, 2010
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Introduction
Assembled here today in 2010, on the cusp of fully implementing Curriculum for Excellence and with an opportunity to examine where we are, where - we have been, and where we want to go.
Came to this job keen to listen and learn - open to new ideas and new thinking, not just received wisdom. But context of that openness is a firm commitment to the traditional values of Scottish education - above all access and excellence.
Clear purpose of SNP in government - determined to maintain the strengths of Scottish education but just as determined to overcome the weaknesses where they exist.
Educational Agenda
A passion for excellence underpins Scottish education at all stages.
We should value the excellence in our current system. It is a moderate, carefully constructed system.
The strengths of that are a reality I want to recognise, and to pay credit to the achievements of my predecessor, Fiona Hyslop. She restored many of the traditional virtues and most especially the principle of free access to higher education.
She knows, and I know, that the reality of Scottish education is that there are hundreds of thousands of willing and eager pupils, being well taught by tens of thousands of good teachers in thousands of good schools. Those are real strengths that nothing we do must detract from.
But while our education system has real, substantial strengths, there are also weaknesses. That is clear from the Scottish Survey of Achievement on reading and writing, published today.
It tells us that while there is much that is really good and much that maintains a high standard there are also some things that are average and - unfortunately - some things that are below average.
We need the courage to confront those weaknesses. We must recognise where there are failures in the system and address those failings. For by harnessing the strength that Scottish education undoubtedly has, by building on those strengths, we can tackle these problems and create an education system that is once again world leading and world beating.
And because we build an education system not just for today but for a generation, we must build a system that will adapt and change to fit our children and young people. A system that learns and innovates, rapidly and continuously, as it must do as the world is changing so rapidly.
Wider Picture
That challenge - the challenge to do the best for every one of Scotland's children and young people - is of critical importance to the collective future of Scotland as a nation.
Of course this Government's Purpose is to create a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.
The contribution that education makes to our Purpose is key, whether it is to the very young, to those learning in our schools, colleges and universities, or to those seeking employment or new skills at any stage of their life.
We know that our life chances begin to be determined before we are born, and are shaped before children enter formal education system at age 3. The arguments, economic as well as social, for investment in the early years, are well researched.
If we want to tackle inequality in Scotland and break the cycle of poverty, poor health and poor attainment, we need to begin in the early years. That is why we published our early years framework and why we are looking to see investment in the early years reflected in every Single Outcome Agreement.
Skills for learning and skills for life are founded on our early years experiences and parents play a crucial role in developing those skills. That is why we have developed a campaign support parenting skills and encourage parents to 'play talk and read' to their children every day to give them the best start in life.
That heavy responsibility on parents and wider society continues beyond those early years. We will talk, rightly, about school education. Must also recognise that our children only spend a minority of their time in school. It is the learning outside school, the influences and experiences they receive, positive and negative, that will largely shape whether they grow up to be successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors, and responsible citizens.
And at the other end of the educational age spectrum, our further and higher education system is equally important. And it is one of Scotland's strengths.
I believe our colleges add significant value to the fabric of Scottish society. Presently Colleges are playing an important part in helping Scotland address the impact of the economic downturn. They show young school-leavers that continued education can be a productive alternative to unemployment. They encourage redundant workers to re-train and re-skill, providing new opportunities instead of the dole. To achieve all that, colleges remain - and must remain - highly nimble and responsive to a changing economy which continually throws down new challenges and demands new approaches.
The recession has seen a strong and growing demand for college places and as a Government we are doing everything we can to help colleges meet that demand. We now see one enrolment for every ten of our working-age population, a level which could never have been attained if Scotland's colleges were not highly relevant to the lives of our people and our businesses and keenly focussed on the needs of Scotland's lifelong learners.
Of course the Scottish higher education sector is a significant business in its own right. With a revenue of over £2 billion and exports of £400m, it is one of Scotland's leading service sector exporters.
A recent study concluded that over half of the research in Scotland was either world leading or internationally excellent. With less than 0.1% of the world's population, Scotland contributes to 1.8 per cent of the world's research.
We need to keep up there in the premier league of academic excellence. But there are significant challenges to be faced if we are to do so - not least the challenges of funding and supporting universities and students.
The Browne review south of the border will no doubt produce solutions appropriate for England. Those solutions are not going to be appropriate for Scotland so I will be - and am - talking with the University principals, the unions and students themselves about what we can do in Scotland to provide a long term, sustainable, future for Scottish Higher Education. I shall have more to say about that at the NUS conference in a few weeks time.
In the shorter term I recognise the critical role universities have in terms of a strong economic recovery for Scotland. They are also key engines in increasing our sustainable economic growth.
This rich tapestry of educational provision at every level and accessible at every age is of great value to Scotland. It is therefore of vital importance that we get every bit of it working together and working in harmony.
The challenge we face
It is in the middle of the education age spectrum - our children's school years - that I want to focus on most today.
I have spent much of my political career engaged with education. As the son of two teachers I have lived with education longer than that.
And since becoming Education Secretary, I have been - quite deliberately - listening. Listening to teachers, parents, pupils, and even opposition politicians. Oh, and given my wife is a headteacher, I have definitely been listening to headteachers.
And from everyone (even from my political opponents) I hear a passion for education and particularly school based education. A passion which, if properly harnessed, can be a huge force for good.
We already have, in this country, the enthusiasm, the aspiration and the ambition to guarantee excellence in our education system. All we need to do is to focus them on an agreed process of change - focus them on making what is good even better and bringing what is average up to a higher mark. Focus them, for a start, on making Curriculum for Excellence the success that it must be.
I don't believe that Scottish teachers want a system that only enables them to deliver something that is "good enough".
And, I am absolutely certain that parents want something far better for their children than "good enough".
Concerns about the current education system - a system that was only "good enough" - have been acknowledged since the Parliament was established in 1999. Indeed by 2002 those concerns had led to two major initiatives to chart a way forward.
I am pleased to have been there at the beginning of the process - as a member of the Parliamentary Education, Culture and Sport Committee's inquiry into the purposes of Scottish education.
The inquiry and the then Executive's national debate on education came to the same conclusion, which was that despite its strengths in offering a broad, balanced and flexible curriculum, the Scottish education system was over-assessed, too centralised and insufficiently deep. All the aspects of learning were not joined up. It was only "good enough". And - very importantly in the light of today's statistics - it was not moving forward in terms of international comparisons nor in terms of domestic assessment.
Scotland needed a more balanced curriculum that developed a wider range of skills, competencies and personal qualities, reduced the undue influence of tests and exams and reduced the amount of direct central prescription on local authorities and teachers. A modern curriculum that placed excellence at its core.
The Curriculum for Excellence was and is the answer to that set of problems. It was and is the right way forward. That is why one of my first actions as Education Secretary was to publicly emphasise my commitment to Curriculum for Excellence. I believe the Curriculum for Excellence will deliver the connected, balanced and flexible approach which we need. I have faith in Scotland's teachers and I am confident Curriculum for Excellence will release them from the top down diktats that have dominated for too long. It will free our teachers to teach. It will make teaching more enjoyable for those who do it, and those who benefit from it. And like all positive change, the more it is embraced, the more good it will do .
Curriculum for Excellence started from a national consensus for change. It has been developed with constructive and detailed input from the whole educational sector. I strongly believe that its success will be directly proportionate to the commitment and enthusiasm that is shown from across Scotland. So I want to repeat today what I said two weeks ago at the Parliament's Education Committee; there is no place for party political bickering about Curriculum for Excellence.
Constructive debate and contribution - yes; nit picking and point scoring, no.
Listening to problems and solving them - yes; making up problems in order to create difference, no.
I won't do it - and I ask others not to do it. The prize we are all striving for is too important for political business as usual.
There are issues to be resolved, decisions to be made and a timetable to be kept. There are reassurances to be given, there is help to offered, there are fears to be overcome. There is a timetable of support to be outlined and kept and there are resources need to be secured and maintained. I am listening and so is the Management Board for Curriculum for Excellence. We are all focussed on getting it right. We must be, for it has to be right.
And it will be.
Case for Change
But we have a lot to get right. Indeed I often think that the totality of the educational challenges we face are too important to be treated as merely the stuff of oppositional attack. Education is a long term business and any problems we have today are, by definition, problems that arose in previous years.
Some of those problems we can see in the report on achievement published today. Certainly the standard is consistent and generally high. But there are issues to address and it is wise we acknowledge them and seek means to address them.
There can be little doubt that some of these results make the case for change. Not least because they have remained more or less the same for several years.
And if we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always got.
These figures provide more evidence that the system is not delivering as much at it should. They give further impetus to the changes that Curriculum for Excellence will deliver. We must ensure that the benefits of CfE happen for every child and happen as quickly as possible.
They also show that a new emphasis on literacy - central of course to the Curriculum for Excellence - is required and indeed is entering into the thinking of most teachers.
But they tell us other things as well - about the need for a renewed focus on standards and excellence for every child and about the fact that the system can often fail those pupils who need it most - those with the least opportunity and the poorest life chances. We must continue, as we do in our class size policy and now in our school meals policy as well, to prioritise delivery for areas of deprivation.
Leadership
Perhaps the most critical tool of all in the process of educational change and progress is leadership. Good leadership - excellent leadership - will help us to address the challenges in the survey. In fact it will help us to overcome them.
The fundamental building block is that every teacher, in every school, in every classroom must fulfil their professional responsibility to lead learning and teaching. That is what they are there for.
The second building block is in formal leadership roles within the system. This role needs a greater focus on leadership alongside management and highlights the need for approaches that set free the talent and professionalism of the workforce for collective improvement.
The third building block is school leadership - the role of the headteacher. We must actively support the recruitment and retention of first class headteachers for every part of our system and to do so we are going to have to listen to the evidence of recent surveys about the growth of bureaucracy and the diminution of autonomy and reverse those trends.
Diversity of Delivery
Of course one way of strengthening the role of headteachers is to be more imaginative about how we deliver education; to create systems that give them more central roles and free them up to give of their best whilst utilising the whole of our educational estate to its fullest potential.
That is not to suggest that our whole system needs to change. It doesn't. But we must be clear how we can identify the good, exciting practice that exists elsewhere and be open to considering different ways of doing things, contextualised within our system. In that regard I look forward to visiting schools in Sweden and Finland next month to see how they have taken education forward in dynamic and successful economies, wedded to a social democratic model of society.
There are many routes to educational excellence; and in Scotland we have nothing to fear about more diversity of provision. We need to understand how different models work, examine how we might fit them into our educational cultural and social principles and share those lessons as widely and openly as possible. To let excellence build upon excellence.
For example one way forward might be to think more about interdisciplinary learning
Reality of living and working in population of 5m - we should be able to find intelligent and flexible ways of working and reduce the inefficient barriers in the current delivery landscape.
A great example of inter-disciplinary learning I recently visited is An Cala, Lochaber College, Fort William. An Cala is an integrated Education and Social Work Unit which provides part time support to young people with Social, Emotional or Behavioural difficulties, providing a safe and supportive environment in which young people can achieve their potential while planning for their future. It takes a child centred approach involving partner agencies in health, careers, police, colleges as well as parents and carers, schools, the voluntary sector and employers. Brings to life the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child and Curriculum for Excellence.
We should also be thoughtful about alternative methods of delivery.
The reality is that we don't have a monochrome education system in Scotland. We have never fallen for the fallacy that one sizes fits all - in fact some of the pillars of our system, such as the 1918 Education Act are monuments to diversity. And now we can build on that strength.
I visited Holy Family Primary School in Kirkintilloch earlier this month and was so impressed by what was being achieved there. It is a school that celebrates diversity in all its richness and it is a very good school indeed.
Whether it is through our denominational schools, our Steiner schools, our remote rural primaries or our mainstream city centre secondaries - or in lots of other places and ways - there are many routes to an excellent education. Access for all and excellence for all should be the guiding principles
An example of both might come from the developing thinking in East Lothian on different models of school governance, which Don Ledingham will talk about further this afternoon.
I've said I will welcome proposals and ideas from other authorities and from other interested parties which look at educational delivery and envision effective and focussed change which would benefit pupils and communities.
The East Lothian proposals are at a very early stage, and it is too early to say what may finally emerge. But, what is being talked about even in this early stage is a radical extension of arrangements that already operate in some parts of Scotland.
That's a great example of building on what is best in Scottish education. We need to explore more ideas like this. I am open to them. I am listening. They will get a fair hearing if they build on traditional Scottish virtues and can guarantee access and excellence. A fair hearing from me and I know a fair hearing from Scotland.
Class Sizes
At the root of all of our work in this Government is not ideology but putting what works into practice. That is true of our constitutional proposals as well as our educational ones of course, because independence is about what works best for Scotland.
While international statistics and comparisons have their place and can guide policymakers, nothing can replace the quality of interaction between teacher and pupil. If we can get that engagement right, not just for many pupils but for every pupil, we will have made a difference.
And the evidence shows that that interaction is most crucial in the early years of schooling. That is why I remain absolutely committed to our policy of class size reduction. I genuinely believe that smaller classes help improve the quality of the pupil teacher interaction which in turn leads to improved learning.
There is ample evidence of this and that smaller classes are beneficial, particularly in areas of deprivation, from the STAR project in Tennessee and from the work of Peter Blatchford in England.
We have made progress on reducing class sizes - the percentage of P1-P3 pupils in classes of 18 or fewer has risen from 10.8 per cent in 2006 to 13.2 per cent in 2008 and 2009. So progress can be made even in the current financial circumstances if the will is there.
- East Ayrshire for example in 2009 increased the percentage of P1-P3 pupils in classes of 18 or fewer from 7.8 per cent to a staggering 41.5 per cent.
- Or Midlothian where the percentage rose from 12.9 per cent to 17.6 per cent.
- West Lothian also have plans for 2010 that will lead to 56 per cent of primaries having a pupil teacher ratio in P1 - P3 of 18 or fewer pupils.
But let's be quite honest, we wanted to see more progress everywhere. We hoped that by now we could report a greater distance travelled by every local authority.
So we need to redouble our effort. We are going to see further progress. We are going to finish the job.
Although the opposition seem to want to give up on smaller class sizes - I suppose because they failed so spectacularly to deliver them when in government - I am not going to be deflected by that type of defeatism.
Smaller class sizes - particularly in Primaries 1-3 and in the areas of greatest deprivation - are worth working for. And going on working for.
You know that we are currently concluding with COSLA an agreement that would see the national figure rise to over 20 per cent in 2010. This would mean - we hope - up to an additional 11,000 P1 - P3 pupils in such small classes.
The focus of this increase will be on deprived areas where the greatest impact of reduced class sizes is found and where the greatest need to improve children's life chances exists.
I said earlier that every idea will get a fair hearing from the Scottish Government and that applies equally to class sizes.
I have been listening to ideas about flexibility in delivery and I will go on listening to them. You know that I have accepted that in a time of great financial pressure it cannot just be business as usual with all our educational ambitions. We need to temper progress with reality, and never more than in these difficult times.
For example, the Association of Directors of Education has already made a number of suggestions such as enhanced teacher/pupil ratios and I am keen to explore alternative approaches with them.
But if we are flexible about how we get there - and even when we get there - make no mistake: we will not be flexible on whether we get there.
And whilst we are on the way I will go on listening. Listening even to those who have not yet made enough progress on the journey.
Now I know that much has been made in the media of Glasgow's support for nurture groups, and perceived tensions between nurture groups and the Concordat commitment to lower class sizes. I understand that tension.
But yesterday, after meeting with Cllr Steven Purcell to discuss these issues, I saw a nurture group in action when I visited Wellshot Primary, in the Tollcross area of Glasgow.
There has been a nurture room at Wellshot Primary for eight years now, and Ms McCluskey - the headteacher there - is a strong advocate for them and the outcomes they bring for the most vulnerable children and families involved.
The nurture room helps children with social, emotional and behavioural needs to feel valued and accepted. Behaviour that may have disrupted their own and others learning is addressed through access to the curriculum within a safe, nurturing environment - whilst remaining part of their mainstream class.
The children I saw yesterday benefit from a targeted approach where teachers work with a very small number of children. As Ms McClusky pointed out to me - the nurture room has not only enabled many challenging children to remain in mainstream education - but the whole school community continues to benefit from the nurturing approach. I can't argue with that.
It is not the whole story on reduced class sizes, and I look to see further progress across the piece from Glasgow and elsewhere. But I will watch with interest the lessons they are learning.Ambition and aspiration
For whatever the route, the theme that underpins all our efforts is aspiration to excellence. It is inspiring and enthusing teachers to higher and higher standards. It is enabling them to inspire our young people to aspire to new levels, to achievements that do them and their country proud. It is about making teachers and pupils the standard bearers of that rigorous Scottish tradition which prizes the democratic intellect above all.
We will achieve this not through grand words but first of all through real support for our teachers. That means better teacher education, better continuous professional development and better reflective practice. Teacher quality is the key driver of educational improvement. I know Graham Donaldson has already spoken to you about his review of teacher education. It is critical that his review addresses the major questions facing the profession and identifies the improvements that will deliver for all our young people.
I want to encourage the best teachers - they are making a tremendous difference every day to the pupils they not only educate but inspire. But I also want to ensure that every teacher is the best teacher they can be. To ensure that teachers are as well equipped as possible to inspire young people and drive their learning to even greater heights.
Teachers more than any other professionals will understand that standing still is not an option. That unless we keep improving and keep innovating, our education system will not stay where it is in an ever changing world - it will actually go backwards.
That is why the challenge for all of us is to work hard in order always to do better and provide an education system fit for the ambitions of the people of Scotland. And to ensure that all parts of that system are fit for purpose - all parts including inspection.
I am delighted to welcome Bill Maxwell, the new HM Senior Chief Inspector of Education for Scotland who arrived last week. He comes at a time of opportunities and a turning point in Scottish education.
Inspection has the ability to be a very positive a force in Scottish education but, like everything else, it needs to be re-assessed in the context of Curriculum for Excellence and in the light of our changed society. The time has come to look afresh at the balance between self-assessment and external inspections. I am asking Bill to take forward that debate and the whole issue of refreshing and renewing how Scotland uses and organises the inspection process.
Conclusion
In every educational sector I see a clear consensus around the outcomes we know our young people need, to ensure that they are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors, and responsible citizens. Those outcomes are part of the Government's Purpose and are supported by our five strategic objectives for a wealthier & fairer, smarter, healthier, safer & stronger and greener Scotland. They will be delivered in the greatest part through our historic Concordat with local government.
Need to discuss openly and widely the means to achieve these outcomes. I believe that we need to examine how diversity in delivery, pursuit of excellence through the curriculum, aiming for higher educational standards, improving the skills of our teachers, and providing more supportive inspection can contribute - all within the context of the traditional and strong virtues of Scottish education.
These are the priorities I have set. These are the priorities I believe will ensure Scottish education is not simply good enough but truly great. Great for our children and great in the contribution it makes to our society.