John Cairney reports from the STUC in Perth
MINISTERS should not be “seduced by simplistic solutions such as streaming of S1 and S2 classes” in their bid to challenge more able pupils, Sandy Fowler, president of the Educational Institute of Scotland, told the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Perth.
Mr Fowler, principal teacher of history at Prestwick Academy, warned: “Many of us have been here before and I can think of no other initiative more likely to lead to social exclusion. If you create elite classes, the corollary is that you also create sink classes.”
His comments follow the visit of Cathy Jamieson, Education Minister, to St Paul’s High in Glasgow, which is trialling new approaches to class organisation in the early years of secondary.
Last week, Adam Gamoran, in an Edinburgh University lecture and drawing on extensive American evidence, issued a similar caution against the push to end mixed-ability classes. It could increase inequalities, advised the professor of sociology at Wisconsin University.
Turning to pay and conditions issues that are the stuff of congresses, Mr Fowler attacked headteachers and local authority directors who labelled teachers as clock-watchers since the introduction of the McCrone agreement.
The vast majority of teachers continued to work well beyond a 35-hour week, “but at least they are now working to their own priorities and able to concentrate on the key areas of teaching and learning”, the EIS president said.
Mocking suggestions that McCrone could lead to the collapse of Scottish education, he believed the settlement could become the “benchmark” for teachers south of the border and other Scottish local authority workers.
But Mr Fowler warned that failure to fully implement the deal would jeopardise the recently launched national debate on education. Whatever future model of education was envisaged, the teacher must be central.
Mr Fowler said: “If McCrone is not implemented in full, a golden opportunity will have been lost to restore the esteem and professionalism of teachers, and, without that, future change based on consensus and collegiality will be impossible.”
