Education and Skills Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Official Report 658KB pdf

Interests

I welcome everyone to the 22nd meeting in 2018 of the Education and Skills Committee and remind all present to turn mobile phones and other devices to silent for the duration of the meeting. I also note for the record that Alasdair Allan has given his apologies; he will have to leave the meeting at some point to move some amendments at the Local Government and Communities Committee.

The committee has had a change of membership since its last meeting. Agenda item 1, therefore, is an opportunity for new committee members to declare whether they have interests relevant to the committee’s remit. I warmly welcome Clare Adamson, Alasdair Allan, Jenny Gilruth and Rona Mackay to the committee, and I invite Ms Adamson, first of all, to declare any interests.

I declare that I am a board member of the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre.

I draw people’s attention to my declaration in the register of members’ interests, but I do not think that there is anything in it that is relevant or from which I derive any remuneration.

I draw people’s attention to my declaration in the register of members’ interests as a member of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

I have no relevant interests to declare.

Thank you and welcome to the committee.

I record my thanks to all the members who have left—James Dornan, George Adam, Richard Lochhead and Gillian Martin—for their contributions to the work of this parliamentary committee. In particular, I thank James Dornan, who as convener managed to pull and hold the committee together as we dealt with very substantial and challenging issues. That was very important. He also showed a real willingness to take the committee out of the committee rooms and to engage actively with people across Scotland with an interest in education. I wish him well in convening the Local Government and Communities Committee.