Recent events have underlined how quickly the world can change and how powerfully interconnected we are across the globe. In the opening paragraph of my commentary in our Improving Scottish Education 2002-2005 report, I said: ‘It is clear that the future will require a population with the confidence and skills to meet the challenges posed by fast and far-reaching change.’ That sentence continues to sum up the key test facing education, not just in Scotland but worldwide. This report focuses on how well placed Scotland is to rise to this challenge and provides important pointers for future development.
Scotland’s future economic prosperity requires an education system within which the population as a whole will develop the kind of knowledge, skills and attributes which will equip them personally, socially and economically to thrive in the 21st century. It also demands standards of attainment and achievement which match these needs and strengthen Scotland’s position internationally.
We have a powerful legacy of improvement in Scottish education over the last quarter of a century upon which we can build. Developments such as Standard Grade, 5-14, Higher Still and, more recently, Assessment is for Learning and Determined to Succeed, have established ways of thinking and working which will remain influential. As the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 has been implemented, all teachers are now becoming more aware of their responsibilities for meeting the needs of every single learner.
In Improving Scottish Education 2002-2005 we identified the need for: greater clarity about the outcomes of education; a stronger focus on essential life skills, particularly literacy and numeracy; assessment and qualifications that complement the curriculum but do not drive it; space for more imaginative teaching; replacing the separate concepts of academic and vocational education with that of an appropriate education for all; a more pronounced focus on health education; and a clearer and more consistent approach to education for citizenship. I am encouraged by the extent to which The Early Years Framework, Curriculum for Excellence, Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy and Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) address these findings. The challenge remains, however, to translate aspiration into action.
Our evidence shows that Scottish education continues to demonstrate the strengths that we highlighted in the period 2002-2005 across all sectors. Since then, further aspects of the system have moved to positions of strength and Scottish education in general is showing steady improvement. At the same time, however, a number of significant problems remain and the need for further and faster improvement has grown.
Early education continues to be strong overall and that good start is maintained into the early years of primary. Children in our primary and secondary schools experience a broad curriculum which is generally in line with existing national guidance. While maintaining a focus on established expectations relating to knowledge and skills, increasing numbers of schools are giving greater emphasis to broadening achievement and to preparing pupils for positive post-school destinations. These undoubted strengths reflect the professional commitment and competence of our teachers and the improving quality of leadership in our centres and schools.
Other areas of Scottish education also show real strength. Colleges continue to provide relevant and accessible programmes and are helping learners develop an increasing range of essential and vocational skills for the world of work and their own personal development. The Review of Scotland’s Colleges 20071 testifies to the key contribution that colleges make to economic growth. The impact of community learning and development on young people and adult learners has grown since Improving Scottish Education 2002-2005. Youth work and adult learning are generally strong.
The context in which local authorities provide education has changed significantly since 2005. Single outcome agreements have provided increased flexibility for decision making at local level and have highlighted the key role that councils play in establishing priorities and leading improvement. Many local authorities have been successful in promoting partnership working and in developing a range of initiatives to improve pupils’ learning in and out of school. The best of our local authorities are already leading curricular change and ensuring that high quality experiences and outcomes are being provided for learners. The challenge remains, particularly in a demanding economic climate, for all local authorities to use their increased freedom in innovative ways which address difficult issues and raise standards.
Curriculum for Excellence embodies a new way of working. It recognises that sustained and meaningful improvement should, to a significant extent, be shaped and owned by those who will put it into practice. Within a broad framework of experiences and outcomes, it aims to provide the space and incentive to develop the capacities of our young people as successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. The key to developing capacities, raising standards and meeting the needs of all learners lies of course in consistent, high quality learning and teaching. It remains true that differences within schools are generally greater than those between schools. We must ensure that the welcome development of self-evaluation across Scottish education brings about real improvement and addresses instances of poor quality practice with determination. Self-evaluation should not be seen simply as more effective monitoring by managers but as the commitment of a staff team to reflect and improve. The increasing extent to which teachers are sharing, analysing and comparing each other’s practice, although still limited, is encouraging.
We have to place professional development, covering both subject content and pedagogy, at the centre of our approach to change if we are to achieve better experiences and outcomes for learners. The onus will be on local authorities, centres, schools and individual teachers to make optimum use of the time and expertise available for professional development. Such development should build capacity for professional networking utilising, for example, the huge potential of Glow2 and other forms of ICT. This drive for enhanced professionalism relies upon brave and effective leadership which engages the abilities and determination of a strong and reflective teaching profession.
It is vital that the new curriculum, qualifications and assessment framework embodies the kind of intellectual demand which will stretch all learners. The current profile of attainment within and across the different sectors of education remains uneven. In particular, many young people are not making the progress they should from the middle stages of primary until well into their secondary education. Difficulties with literacy and numeracy and an apparent reluctance or inability to engage with demanding areas of learning such as mathematics, science and modern languages can become entrenched at these stages. I am encouraged that Curriculum for Excellence proposes to address literacy and numeracy directly, emphasising the need to develop these fundamental skills across the curriculum and to provide formal recognition of progress up to the end of every young person’s school career. Developing to the full the skills and attributes that underpin the four capacities will be essential to equipping our young people to meet the challenges of the future. Formally accredited attainment and broader forms of achievement are sometimes portrayed as alternatives. They are not. Both are essential to the future success of individuals and of our society and economy as a whole.
Sound assessment is integral to the learning and teaching process and to our ability to be confident about standards. A prerequisite is for educators to ensure that they are secure in their judgement of pace and progress in learning. That means actively and rigorously seeking to develop and share knowledge, data and other intelligence about performance in order to be confident that each learner is achieving fully. The next period of development in Curriculum for Excellence will involve setting out new approaches that streamline assessment and qualifications arrangements, particularly at S4. Such change poses significant challenges in ensuring progression, breadth of recognition and smooth transitions from the earlier phase of general education.
The publication of Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy represented a call to action that challenges all lifelong learning providers to equip people with the skills, expertise and knowledge for success. It has provided added impetus for Scottish education to work across sectors in order to ease transition between stages and support learners into positive destinations after each stage. Scotland’s lifelong skills strategy draws upon the agenda set by Curriculum for Excellence in the pre-school and schools sectors, and requires partnership working between schools and other sectors, including colleges and community learning and development, in developing skills progressively.
Positive links across partners and stakeholders are key elements in all of this. Successful change in our centres and schools requires the full involvement of parents and learners in considering both the implications of what is proposed and their own contribution. It requires pre-school centres, schools and colleges to work together and with community learning and development, employers and other providers to enhance and extend the curriculum and prepare learners to move on to positive destinations.
The GIRFEC approach aims to ensure that centres, schools and educational services work more closely with partner agencies so that all children get the help that they need when they need it. The 2007 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland3 acknowledged that, in comparison with most OECD countries, the Scottish school system is high performing and highly equitable in respect of both learner outcomes and school quality. However, the report also highlighted the limited success of Scotland’s schools in tackling those differences in outcomes that are associated with socio-economic disadvantage. A number of important steps are being taken to address this fundamental issue, particularly through early intervention. Curriculum reform should also, in time, make an impact by improving motivation and relevance.
Findings from our child protection inspections show considerable variation in the effectiveness of practice across Scotland. There are strengths in the initial support given to children to keep them safe but these are not always sustained. Effective planning to meet children’s needs, based on a rigorous assessment of risk, needs much more development. Improvements are also still required in multi-agency self-evaluation to ensure that this process leads to improvements in practice. We are working with stakeholders to ensure that the lessons from the current cycle of child protection inspections are embedded in practice.
In our last report we said that systems of accountability must themselves adapt to reinforce the kind of changes in practice and in culture which the new ways of working demand. Since then, HMIE has significantly reformed inspections and reviews to focus on what matters most in terms of outcomes for learners, building directly on self-evaluation and enhancing capacity by promoting well-judged innovation. We have also strengthened our work in identifying and spreading good practice through, for example, The Journey to Excellence and good practice conferences. These changes have been possible because of the good progress in effective self-evaluation made by schools and colleges over many years. Initial experience of our new arrangements seems to justify that confidence but more needs to be done to establish a consistent culture of self-evaluation for improvement.
This report identifies a range of vital strengths on which Scottish education can build. It also makes very clear the areas where further significant improvement is needed. HMIE will continue to work with others to ensure that Scotland has the creative and dynamic education system for learners of all ages and the effective services for children it needs to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
GRAHAM DONALDSON
HM Senior Chief Inspector