ONE of Scotland’s richest men is to help spearhead a new drive to improve leadership in schools amid concerns over the lack of sufficiently qualified head teachers.
Sir Tom Hunter is to provide training opportunities for head teachers worth £1 million under his Columba 1400 leadership academy.
Sir Tom, who became Scotland’s first self-made billionaire after success in the retail and property market, previously helped fund similar opportunities for heads in partnership with the Labour-led former Scottish Executive in 2005.
The move is to be announced by John Swinney, the Education Secretary, as part of a £4.5m training schemes for head teachers.
Mr Swinney said the Scottish College for Educational Leadership will run the Excellence in Headship scheme for existing headteachers backed by an annual £400,000 of Government funding over the next four years.
School heads will learn a range of leadership skills and under the initiative which will also include an international exchange programme to learn from heads in other countries.
The Government will invest £2m in the next four years along with £1m from the Hunter Foundation.
The move comes after widespread concern about paucity of quality candidates for leadership posts with static salaries and growing administration blamed for the issue.
Last month, Glasgow City Council announced a move to appoint one headteacher across two of its largest secondaries because of a lack of suitable applicants.
The concerns are more acute because the Scottish Government needs effective headteachers to lead a new drive to hand more power over finances to individual school heads.
Mr Swinney said: “Effective school leadership is key to the success of schools. As a result, it’s vital we invest in our headteachers and support them to deliver superb schooling for children in Scotland.
“I am delighted to announce that Excellence in Headship is now open for recruitment, backed by £1.6m of Scottish Government funding over the next four years. In addition, the Scottish Government, in partnership with the Hunter Foundation, will support leadership academies delivered by Columba 1400 which will benefit 320 headteachers in its first year.”
Sir Tom, chairman of the Hunter Foundation said: “Education is the enabler, the leveller of playing fields, but to deliver that we need great leadership.
“The pace of change in the world of work is an incredible challenge for our school leaders and teachers because 65 per cent of our young people joining primary school this year will go to jobs that don’t even exist today.
“So rightly we need to invest more in supporting our school leaders and that’s why we are delighted to be investing £1m alongside the Scottish Government’s £2m into world-class school leadership.”
The announcement comes as the Government is holding a review on how schools are run, with proposed changes including headteachers being handed new powers.
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