One of the main challenges facing Scottish education is to build on existing strength to create an excellent educational experience and successful outcomes for learners of all ages. Achieving that goal will require leadership of the highest quality throughout our education system.
We recently published the Improving Scottish Education report which evaluated the quality of leadership across all sectors. Educational leaders work in a challenging and complex environment and it is encouraging that we found very good leadership in around forty percent of cases and good leadership in around a further forty-five percent. These figures are very positive but they also mean that around fifteen percent of evaluations of leadership were weak or unsatisfactory. This report and the accompanying case studies are intended to help improve leadership at all levels.
Successful leadership in education demands among other things: clarity of purpose and the ability to communicate that purpose persuasively; the capacity to cut through complexity; a desire to learn allied to vigilance in seeking and testing new ideas; effective use of available resources; and constant focus on impact and outcomes for each learner. We give many examples of such leadership in this report drawn from across all sectors and from all parts of Scotland.
Developing leadership is not just about honing the skills of those in the most senior positions, important though that undoubtedly is. It is also about releasing the energies of every member of staff and every learner and about giving each of them a sense that their contributions are valued. The development of such a culture is important in its own right and as a response to the pressing requirement to build leadership capacity and to develop the leaders of tomorrow.
A desire to take responsibility and to accept accountability is part of good leadership. Ultimate accountability rests with the person at the head of the formal structure but all members of staff must be committed to and feel accountable for their own development and performance. Such commitment lies at the heart of professionalism.
It is essential that we build a leadership culture in Scottish education which encourages initiative, tackles difficult problems directly and is genuinely aspirational.
Graham Donaldson
Her Majesty’s Senior Chief Inspector
HM Inspectorate of Education