JOHN Swinney has made it clear that more autonomy for schools will be part of his blueprint for a world-class education system (“John Swinney vows to press ahead with controversial curriculum reforms”, The Herald, September 21).
Good. Perhaps he can be persuaded to ensure that he will provide the necessary time to ensure that such autonomy can actually be put to good use.
The single most important school variable in raising attainment is the quality of teaching.
One of the very best ways of increasing the consistency and quality of teaching is for school leaders to find time for their teaching colleagues to get together regularly to share their insights and expertise, a form of professional development that has a direct impact on pupil learning.
That being the case, Mr Swinney might want to have a look at the statistics that the recently-published 2017 OECD Education at a Glance provides, particularly as they relate to teaching time and non-contact time in different countries. Take Finland, for example.
Without wishing to get bogged down in a mass of statistics, I find it interesting that the report indicates that Scottish teachers in all sectors spend 855 hours per 38-week year in actual teaching time whereas in Finland, whose education service is recognised as world class, teaching time varies between 550 hours per 38-week year for teachers working with upper secondary school pupils to 677 hours for teachers working in primary schools.
So it looks as if there is an argument for providing more non-contact time in Scottish education’s working time agreements in an effort to increase the possibility of more collegial and, in particular, more collaborative working time, to improve that consistency in the quality of teaching that best enhances pupil learning.
The problem in that, of course, is that you need more teachers of the proper quality to be able to do it. Still, we can look at Finland again for a possible solution to that problem.
There, salaries and conditions of service are such that teaching is a highly regarded destination for top graduates.
That is no longer the case in Scotland. It is time, perhaps, for deep reflection on why that should be the case before doing something about it, such as enhancing and ring-fencing collegial time so that best use can be made of it in an effort to overtake the attainment challenge being laid down for schools by the Scottish Government.
Even where some teachers have some collegial time available, it seems to be consumed by duties that they have had to take over from clerical staff whose working hours have been reduced.
Dick Lynas,
89 Courthill Avenue,
Cathcart,
Glasgow .
AS John Swinney pushes on with his education ‘reforms’, those who recognise a weak attempt at hiding the truth will remain unimpressed.
Over the last 10 years the SNP has squeezed resources out of education, leaving teachers’ morale at an all time low but it still expects plaudits for putting much smaller sums back in recent times to address the attainment gap, where it has failed our children.
As for the Curriculum for Excellence that so many teachers and other education experts view as more of a curriculum for decline, Mr Swinney promises to take it further. Ignoring criticisms that it has been undermining educational standards, he expects us to believe that changes to governance will enable the changes education so badly needs. Teachers know that only more resources and an honest acceptance that the CfE is causing more harm than good will help get education out of the mess the SNP has put it in.
Keith Howell, White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel