The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday December 19 2024 #Education

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.

00:05My name is Dale Miller.

00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.

00:09I'm joined by our Education Correspondent Callum Ross.

00:13We are less than a week from Christmas now.

00:16The news agenda should be starting to wind down, but it's not to be honest.

00:20It continues to be a busy week as the Scottish and UK Parliaments try to

00:25cram in business to finish the year before they disappear for Christmas as well.

00:31If we look at the front page of today's Scotsman, going in on a fresh rift,

00:37probably the most significant moment so far under a UK Labor government

00:43where Anas Sarwar had to step away and directly criticize the government,

00:48talking about his disappointment at the decision made around no compensation

00:55for WASPI women, which is women of a certain age, pensionable age,

01:01that missed out under the change to the pension age rules.

01:07It's not something we've seen a lot from Anas, but he had spoken before

01:12the general election about his desire to see women in this position

01:17receive compensation.

01:19He'd sort of campaigned for that and quite an embarrassing position for him

01:24and Scottish Labor that the UK Labor government and Sir Keir Starmer have said

01:29that they cannot afford it as a government.

01:32There'll be more to play out there.

01:33Sir Keir Starmer's getting quizzed for the final time before Christmas later today,

01:40and I would expect we'll hear more from him on that issue.

01:43Callum, there's also a story on that front page, re-education, specifically around

01:49this Teaching Centre of Excellence.

01:51It was something that was promised, but now we know where it's going to be.

01:55That's right, Dale.

01:56It was back in October 2023, so over a year ago, that Jenny Gilruth,

02:01the Education Secretary, announced that she would be establishing

02:06this Centre of Teaching Excellence.

02:09The announcement came at the SNP conference at the time,

02:12the autumn conference.

02:13It kind of took people by surprise a bit, to be honest.

02:17There wasn't really any build-up to it.

02:18There was no consultation.

02:20People weren't really sort of sure what it was all about

02:23and how it kind of fitted with the wider reform of Scottish education.

02:30And to be honest, we've not really heard a lot about it since then,

02:34and a lot of those questions still exist, but it does seem to now be happening.

02:39Jenny Gilruth announced in Holyrood yesterday that it was going to be hosted

02:44by Glasgow University.

02:46It has won the sort of race to host it.

02:49Apparently, there were other universities bidding.

02:53Sounds like it will be up and running in the next sort of two or three months or so,

02:58January, February, March time.

03:03Budget, I mean, I dug out some kind of government papers relating to the tender.

03:08It looks like the budget is sort of between four and five million pounds

03:13for the first two years.

03:15It's not really clear if it's going to be a sort of long-term sort of project.

03:19These papers suggest it's been envisaged initially for four years,

03:24but I guess with anything like this, it kind of depends how successful it is.

03:28There'll be reviews and everything else to see if it's working.

03:33And the kind of aim is to help teachers, you know, engage in research and evidence

03:40and kind of be at the sort of cutting edge of things,

03:42become world leaders really in teaching.

03:47And I guess the hope would be that if they do that,

03:51kind of using the latest thinking, new techniques, everything else,

03:55then young people can only benefit.

03:58But as I said, there's still a bit of a lack of detail around, you know, the plans.

04:06Alan, putting your analytical hat on, you've written a lot about the problems,

04:09about school violence, antisocial behaviour,

04:14about issues around teacher supply and numbers, et cetera.

04:20Is this going to make a difference,

04:23or is it more that the government's trying to be seen to make a difference there?

04:27You know, what's your view on that?

04:30Really don't know, to be honest.

04:32I mean, Jenny Gauru is a former teacher, of course.

04:37She reminds us of this a lot.

04:41And I think she likes the idea of putting, you know, teachers at the heart of things.

04:46And obviously, teachers have a key role to play in resolving some of these issues.

04:51But whether, you know, I think there is a sort of question mark

04:55over whether this is exactly where our money should be going at the moment

04:58and whether it will deliver the outcome, comes Jenny Gauru's hopes.

05:02But I guess we kind of just need to wait and see on that front.

05:06Kel, I'm just on practical ideas around fixing some of the problems

05:12that we know exist currently with the education system.

05:15Reform Scotland, it's a think tank.

05:17There's a new report out, and it does put forward some proposals

05:22for secondary school and how they think this is going to work.

05:27That's right, Dale.

05:27It's the Commission on School Reform, which is set up by Reform Scotland think tank.

05:34Yeah, obviously, the backdrop, as you mentioned, you know,

05:37there's ongoing concerns about deteriorating pupil behaviour and attendance,

05:42particularly since the COVID pandemic and the disruption to education.

05:48Then this report kind of links those issues to problems with exams

05:52and the timetable in schools, particularly around S4, so National 5 pupils.

06:00I mean, it's a long report, but it basically says that the kind of study leave

06:05and exam period at S4 is far too long.

06:08These pupils are kind of off, effectively off.

06:12They're not in classes for a long period, and then they come back,

06:15and then they're almost immediately kind of off on their summer holidays.

06:19And there's a big sort of lack of disruption to the momentum there,

06:23basically, which affects attendance and concentration.

06:27So this report kind of suggests holding the National 5 exams before the Easter holidays

06:34and then having these S4 pupils after the Easter holidays come back

06:39and kind of go straight into their higher courses.

06:41So it would almost be an extra term of higher.

06:46And as I said, this Commission on School Reform suggests that this would kind of resolve

06:52some of the issues around the kind of lack of momentum at that kind of age group and period.

06:58But as I said, this is just a proposal.

07:03The government's already kind of responded to the Hayward Review

07:05on the future of Scottish qualification.

07:08So I'm not sure there's a great likelihood of this being taken forward at this stage,

07:12but it certainly feeds into the debate.

07:15And I'll do note that the Scottish Government response attached to that story that came in last night.

07:21Sort of gave the indication that the Scottish Government wasn't probably going to pick up

07:27and embrace all the ideas in the report.

07:28But it makes for interesting reading,

07:31I think, looking outside the box at solutions for what's happening with the system.

07:36You can read those stories from Callum, including the latest on the Waspie Women decision

07:42and the rift between the labour camps at Scotsman.com.

07:46Look for either politics or education in the navigation bar.

07:49That'll get you to the stories that we've been talking about.

07:52Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky.

07:57And please go out and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow.

08:00Thanks for joining us.

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