Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Bill: Stage 1
The Education, Culture and Sport Committee is in the process of pre-legislative scrutiny of this bill and has asked us to consider whether we want to make a submission to it on the bill's content.
Having examined every section of the bill, as you would expect of me, I came to the conclusion—and the clerk has drawn my attention to the fact—that sections 3 to 7, on raising standards, are probably the most appropriate sections for our consideration. We might also reflect on the fact that it was not obvious to me where the lifelong learning agenda fitted into the content of this bill. Those struck me as the principal areas of concern for this committee.
We are not considering every section of the bill: that is not our job. Our job is to identify issues on which the Education, Culture and Sport Committee may want to reflect further, and to question ministers on the content of the bill.
I think that we all share the bill's aim to raise standards. Among the papers that we have been presented with today is a copy of a submission from Iain MacKintosh, a partnership manager of the Inverness and Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Education Business Partnership, dated October 1999, which was part of the consultation process. His comments relate to the sections to which the clerk has drawn our attention. Broadly speaking, and without being too simplistic, he is recommending that business should have a role to play in ensuring that standards are raised. Perhaps that is one of the areas on which we could focus.
I suggest that the committee consider two general principles. First, should business be involved in the consultation process in section 5? Secondly, should business be involved in preparation of the development in section 6? If so, in what way? Who would speak for business, and how would they be involved?
Under section 50 of the bill, which was considered by the Subordinate Legislation Committee yesterday morning, there is power for the Scottish ministers to instruct the General Teaching Council to include other committees than the mandatory ones. It occurs to me that it might be relevant for us also to consider whether one of the committees that the GTC could or should establish would involve business issues in relation to schools and promote entrepreneurship.
Both the submissions that we received from the consultation process were useful. I agree with what Fergus Ewing says about the need to involve the business community and the views that are expressed by the business partnership. I am not, however, happy about its statement on the purpose of education, with which I would contend.
Several important points are made in the Scottish Trades Union Congress submission, concerning the interaction between schools and the wider community, and the breadth of the curriculum. I think that those points are well made and must be taken into account.
We should also consider the role of professional judgment in the setting of standards. The issue is whether standards are becoming too top-down and are not taking into account the professional judgment of teachers, in this case, or other professionals, in other spheres of local authority competence. Some of the points that have been made by the STUC are well made.
The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee might have a wider focus than education. There are strengths and weaknesses in all structures, but the fact that statutory education is separated, in the parliamentary structures, from lifelong learning means that we should seek ways in which to bring those two subjects together.
Your first point about the wider role of schools in the local community is something that comes within the scope of our interest. I am dubious about your second point on professional guidance on standards, as that is more directly an issue for the Education, Culture and Sport Committee. However, we can reflect on that point.
I endorse what Fergus Ewing said. I looked at sections 4, 5 and 7 and I feel that specific reference must be made to the needs of business. Although I entirely understand what Elaine Murray has said about education being a broad concept rather than being for a particular training need, we must not lose sight of eventual workplace and employment opportunities. I would like a specific reference to the need for business to be consulted to be written into the bill. Business should be one of the consulting bodies in determining national priorities and the individual education authorities' statements of improvement objectives and school performance.
I would like to make a specific point. I do not know whether I am alone in this opinion. When I was reading section 4, which is about national priorities—a helpful idea, which I applaud—I noticed that paragraph (a) says that the Scottish Executive
"shall define and publish priorities",
while paragraph (b) says that it
"may define and publish measures of performance".
I fail to see why that second paragraph should not also say "shall". It is pointless to define and identify something and then leave it completely optional as to how performance is measured. That may be my singular view.
My points are not unrelated to what Fergus Ewing said, although I see our role more as impressing upon the Education, Culture and Sport Committee the importance of promoting entrepreneurial culture in our schools. Whether that equates with the needs of business is another issue.
When I read the response from the education business partnership in Inverness, I asked myself why only one education business partnership had responded. Is it not the case that those organisations are established primarily to reflect on those very matters? It may be worth suggesting to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee that it canvass the views of other education business partnerships in Scotland, particularly on encouraging entrepreneurial culture in schools in west central Scotland.
The clerks have made a selection from the consultation responses, but only one from an education business partnership could be found. That highlights the very reason for our considering this bill. We have not quite got the focal point of business link-ups into policy making. It may be something to do with Inverness and its prestigious footballing tradition, but that was the only such submission that the clerks could identify.
Given that employability issues and enterprise culture have been debated in this committee, it must be implicit in the overall objective of the new education bill that business is involved somewhere. We have heard the cry many times in evidence that there is a great gap between the education and business establishments. There are common interests, and there must be some way of reflecting that in the bill. I support what Allan Wilson said.
I endorse what has been said. Surprisingly enough, I read in depth the submission from the Scottish Trades Union Congress. I endorse its view that the trade unions should also be involved in partnership with business.
I shall draw the discussion to a close. Having gauged the feelings of members, I shall ask the clerk to write to the clerk of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee saying that sections 5 and 6, which refer to a consultative process on improvement of standards and on school development plans, should also include reference to dialogue with representatives of business to guarantee that their voice is heard on those important issues.
We should also give a more general endorsement to linking the bill to the outlook for lifelong learning and the relationship between education and the workplace. We should emphasise the fact that the committee supports as wide a role as possible for schools in the local community, which meets some of our objectives on lifelong learning and providing greater access to services.
Fergus Ewing mentioned section 50 and the General Teaching Council. We might not want to include the point he raised in the text of the bill, but it should form part of the discussion between the Education, Culture and Sport Committee and the minister.
With those comments, I ask the clerks to formulate a letter to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee in the spirit of the remarks that have been made, and I thank members for their contributions.