Scottish council chief executives have condemned John Swinney’s plans to reform education, saying they will increase bureaucracy and distract from improving classroom standards.
The deputy first minister wants to give more power to head teachers and set up regional education boards in a move criticised for cutting out local authorities. Last week parent-teacher groups complained about the impact on democracy.
The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives Scotland (Solace) has warned that more bureaucracy from new education regions would move the focus away from improving children’s schooling.
It said: “We need approaches that empower not only teachers and head teachers, but also parents and whole communities. We believe that local authorities are uniquely placed to facilitate and provide the strong middle that this co-ordinated, co-operative and collaborative approach requires.”
In its submission to the government’s consultation on the reforms, Solace said there needed to be a clearer strategy and more teachers should be recruited. It welcomed the government’s focus on early years but tackling inequality was also vital to driving up standards.
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Iain Gray, Scottish Labour education spokesman, said: “The chief executives of our councils are highly respected, politically neutral officials who have years of experience delivering education services across Scotland. “They join teachers, head teachers, parents, Cosla [local authorities’ group], and academics in condemning this review for missing the point and pursuing reforms which are misguided and unwanted.”
“We will continue to ensure we have the right number of teachers, with the right skills, in the right places to educate our young peopleJohn Swinney
Mr Swinney said the government was “utterly focused” on making Scottish education world class.
“That is why we are reviewing school governance and we will now reflect on the submissions received from over 1,000 respondents to help determine how we take this forward,” he added.
“Official statistics show that we have maintained pupil-teacher ratios and that teacher numbers have in fact increased since last year to 50,970 [ from 50,717 in 2015].
“We will continue to ensure we have the right number of teachers, with the right skills, in the right places to educate our young people.”
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The government was supporting education authorities with £1.5 million on the Into Headship training programme for aspiring heads, which had been joined by 182 teachers, he said.
A survey from Unison has suggested that lack of time, resources and increasing amount of work meant that support staff were struggling to maintain standards for pupils in Scotland. The union said it was “probably one of the biggest surveys of school support staff ever in Scotland” and that it found complaints of heavier workloads, jobs cuts, lack of equipment and dirty schools.
Those who took part included classroom assistants, pupil support workers, school administrative staff as well as cleaners, technicians, catering staff, librarians and library assistants. The survey found that 54 per cent of support staff said that budgets had been cut, 40 per cent carried out unpaid work to meet workloads, 60 per cent said morale was low and 80 per cent said workloads were heavier.
Carol Ball, chairwoman of Unison’s education committee, said: “Cutting hours and not replacing staff means job losses are less likely to get noticed outside school. But these cuts still damage our children’s education inside school.