Call for views goes out on Education Bill

How can new legislation improve outcomes in educational attainment, especially for pupils with a background of socio-economic disadvantage? The question is one of the key issues that Holyrood's Education & Culture Committee seeks to address in its stage 1 scrutiny of the Scottish Government ’s Education (Scotland) Bill.

The bill will place a duty on local authorities to provide education in a way that is designed to reduce inequality of outcomes for pupils experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. It will also require regular reports to be published providing updates on this work.

Growing and strengthening Gaelic education is also covered by the bill, through a new process where education authorities must respond to parental requests for an assessment of the need for Gaelic medium primary education.

Also included are provisions to ensure that all teachers at independent schools are registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland; improve the process of making complaints to Scottish ministers; and create a new chief education officer post in all local authorities.

Questions in the committee’s call for written submissions include:

• whether the duty in the bill is to "have regard to the desirability" of "reducing inequalities of outcome" is meaningful enough to have the desired policy effect;
• how "inequalities of outcome" should be interpreted, whether it should be defined in the bill;
• whether sanctions should be prescribed in the event of failure by the Scottish Government or local authorities to achieve this policy intention, and if so, what;
• how significant a change in Gaelic medium primary education will the bill deliver, and should its provisions be limited to primary schooling;
• what will be the outcomes of extending rights under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 to children aged 12 and over with capacity, and which rights should be extended;
• how would schools not already subject to the requirement, benefit from their teaching staff having to be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland?

Committee convener Stewart Maxwell MSP commented: “Reducing inequality in education is rightly a priority for the Scottish Government and this bill aims to do just that. Improving the attainment of Scotland’s pupils, especially for the most socially disadvantaged, is crucial not just to parents and the pupils themselves but also to employers.

“As we begin our scrutiny we want to know what improvements the legislation will have on attainment and achievement in schools and how it will make the reduction of inequality a reality.

Click here to view the call for evidence. The closing date for responses is Monday 18 May 2015.