Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 12 Feb 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Official Report 115KB pdf

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Petition

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Technology Teachers Association (PE233)

The next item on the agenda is consideration of progress on petition PE233 from the Technology Teachers Association. Members have in front of them a response from the Executive on the petition.

I was a little disappointed by the response. First, it has taken a long time to come to us. During that time, thousands more pupils have been denied technological studies. I understand that the course is now off the curriculum in most west of Scotland schools and that the number of teachers is decreasing and the infrastructure is declining as time goes on.

On more specific matters, the Executive claims that, of 6,000 questionnaires that were sent out, only one response was received, which was from Scottish Engineering. That is strange, because when the committee expressed an interest in asking business its views on the future of technological studies, what needs to be taught and what skills youngsters should have, we received quite a number of letters. We received responses from Scottish Enterprise, COSLA, the Construction Industry Training Board and the UK Offshore Operators Association. I find it strange that those organisations responded to the committee but did not respond to the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum, as it was at the time, when it asked similar questions.

If the Executive is committed to taking the issue seriously, given that we have had a science strategy, would not it be appropriate to have a document on technological studies? I understood that a short-term working group was to be established. A short-lived task force on the use of knowledge and technology is mentioned in "Created in Scotland—The Way Forward for Scottish Manufacturing in the 21st Century". I understand that the Deputy Minister for Education and Young People, Nicol Stephen, was involved in producing that document, yet there is no mention of it in the Executive's response. The response falls some way short of adequately addressing the petitioners' concerns. The petition raises additional points that we may wish to put to the Minister for Education and Young People.

I have talked before about the competing claims of subjects and courses in the curriculum. We need to be aware that some of the elements that make technological studies important are also taught in other courses, so pupils who do not take technological studies are not necessarily denied all the elements of that course. I worry when people judge a course only by the number of people who take it and assume that there is a failure of provision or a problem with the course itself, when in fact the choices that pupils and schools make do not necessarily exclude technological studies. There is a balance to be struck between technological studies and the competing demands of other courses.

There are two obvious ways for us to proceed. The first is to invite the Minister for Education and Young People to the committee. The second is to write to the minister outlining the issues that Irene McGugan has raised. That is probably the more useful suggestion at this stage. We will try to get a response from the minister as soon as possible. We will circulate that response to members and then we can decide how we will proceed.

Would it be appropriate for the petitioners to have an input into how we go forward, because they will have a view on the Executive response and the extent to which it meets their—

I am reluctant at this stage to begin that kind of process on a petition. The committee has a number of on-going petitions to consider and it is important that we continue to have ownership of them. To engage in a continued dialogue with petitioners may not move the issue forward. When we get the response from the minister, we will consider it. We may wish to go back to the petitioners at that point. Members have raised a number of valuable points that need to be clarified. Is it agreed that we should write to the minister?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes the public part of this meeting. We move into private session for consideration of the reports on the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Records) (Scotland) Bill and on our Scottish Borders inquiry.

Meeting continued in private until 16:34.