Calls for Scotland’s schools watchdog, Education Scotland, to be reformed have been renewed. They came in the wake of a report that shows only a quarter of Education Scotland staff believe the body - which inspected 105 primaries in 2015-16 - is well managed, and over a third want to leave as soon as possible, or within the next 12 months. The results of the Education Scotland People Survey 2016, which surveyed 251 staff, were obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem education spokesman Tavish Scott said: “The quango operates as both inspectorate and policymaker. That does not work.”
Support staff in schools are “exhausted, undervalued and under enormous pressure”, according to a new report by the union, Unison. Unison carried out a survey of almost 1,000 support staff in 25 councils and found 54 per cent said budgets had been cut, 40 per cent carried out unpaid work to meet workloads, 60 per cent reported morale was low, and 80 per cent said their workloads had increased. The findings echo a recent TESS investigation, which revealed almost every category of support staff in schools has seen a sharp fall in numbers.
An independent thinktank is calling for an end to “institutionalised age discrimination” in preschool education, pointing out that some children are entitled to almost a year more of free nursery education because of when their birthdays fall. Currently, the legal entitlement to government-funded nursery provision starts the term after a child turns 3. Reform Scotland made its comments in response to the Scottish government’s consultation on the increase from 600 to 1,140 hours per year. Primary headteachers’ organisation AHDS has come out against the rise claiming it will lead to “no better gains for children than part-time”.
Changing the way in which schools are run will not close the attainment gap, the organisation Children in Scotland has claimed. The government’s efforts to close the attainment gap began in primary with the launch of the Scottish Attainment Challenge in 2015, and now it hopes to make further progress by enabling more decisions to be made “at school level”. However, in its submission to the government’s school governance review, CIS chief executive Jackie Brock said there is “virtually no evidence” to suggest reform would narrow the gap.
@TESScotland
