Chamber and committees

That aside, I have seen the images of what it looked like. From what I saw, the six-monthly inspection programme had not been taking place. It is a real shame that we have come to this critical—

As I said, I am just trying to bring the issue alive, so that people can understand what the ferries mean to communities.

Can I go back to some of the procurement decisions? Is that okay, convener?

Am I okay to carry on with other questions?

Thank you very much for the invitation to attend. Before I come to my other questions, I will pick up on what Mr Lumsden was talking about. As far as I am aware, the Ardrossan port project is trying to get agreement between Transport Scotland, which you have said you are advising, North Ayrshire Council and Peel Ports as to the cost apportionment of the tender process. Where are we with that element of those discussions?

We will just have to wait. It seems an awful long time.

I want to go back to something along the lines of what my colleague Bob Doris spoke about. I am from the city, and I find it difficult, as I am sure many people do, to really understand what the ferry services mean to the islanders and how critical they are to their daily lives.

For context, I am the ex-convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee, so I am deeply concerned to learn that there are 14 young people who live on Iona and go to Oban high school but who will no longer be able to attend school five days a week. They will only be able to go to school three days a week, which is down to the fact that the aid to navigation—ATON—at the Bull Hole is not functioning. That means that the ferry services can operate only in daylight hours. It also means that any Iona resident who needs to go to the mainland needs an overnight stay, whether it is for the dentist, hospital, banking or all sorts of things that I can just get on a bus to go and do. That is having a massive impact.

I gather that the ATON should be inspected every six months, but I have seen the pictures of what it looked like in September, and there is no way that anybody got to the top of that to do that inspection. I am perplexed as to why we are in a position where we are waiting on a suitable work boat to deploy the new buoy. The timelines and those small things make it absolutely catastrophic for that community. What might you want to say to those families who are living on Iona and to those 14 children who cannot go to high school with their pals?

Someone could give you something that is better than your specification, if they wanted to.

Do you give them that feedback on award?

You said that you had everything specifically—

Okay. Thank you.

As the former convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee, I am delighted to speak in today’s debate. I thank everyone for their kind words on my convenership; it was a role that I loved, and I know that I have passed it on to the very safe hands of my colleague Douglas Ross.

For years, now, the Scottish Government has been promising to reform Scottish education. We heard about the timeline from Ross Greer, who, despite his age, has been in the Parliament for a little bit longer than I have. Although the main catalyst for some of the change was the utterly disastrous handling of exams during the pandemic, the concerns had been bubbling away for a long time. Scotland’s declining performance predates Covid, so we cannot use that as an excuse.

Under the Scottish National Party, education in Scotland has fallen in international rankings, and Scotland’s mean programme for international student assessment scores in maths and science are at a record low. The SNP has also failed—and is failing—to close the attainment gap, with the gap between the poorest and richest primary pupils in reading, writing, literacy and numeracy remaining similar to before the pandemic.

The Education (Scotland) Bill aims to replace the SQA with a new body, qualifications Scotland, which will take on functions related to developing and awarding qualifications, accrediting other qualifications, and providing advice to ministers on those matters.

The bill will also establish the office of His Majesty’s chief inspector of education as a new independent body for education inspections. The inspectorate will be responsible for school and early learning inspections and for evaluating broader educational services.

The Education, Children and Young People Committee’s stage 1 report makes it clear that there must be a major change in the education system. However, it also makes it clear that the SNP’s current plans to replace the SQA will deliver no real change at all. The report states that the SQA’s reputation “has become tarnished” and that legislation alone cannot change culture. After all, much of culture change is down to leadership, changes to ways of working and a commitment to doing things very differently.

I will focus on two areas: the change from the SQA to the new qualifications Scotland body and the independence of the new inspectorate. We have heard much about those two things already.

The first issue, which I have already touched on, is the culture change that is needed. That must happen, and it will be driven by leadership, with leaders being willing to accept that they have made mistakes. Leaders must listen to concerns and make the necessary changes from the top down. I am concerned that that is not happening right now.

The EIS, the nation’s largest teaching union, has also criticised the bill. The organisation highlighted concerns about the lack of separation between the new qualifications body’s accreditation, regulating and awarding functions.

The Association of Directors of Education in Scotland said:

“There is a danger that change will be minimal and that the existing elements of the system are being repackaged and reinstated in a different order. This does not meet what is required or recommended by Muir, Hayward and OECD ... A change of name and structure is not a sufficient response to Muir and OECD recommendations ... There is a disproportionate focus on structures when cultural and behavioural change in national organisations is also required.”

ADES also said that the bill looked “autocratic and top down”, and it questioned why the same personnel would be running the new organisations.

School Leaders Scotland said:

“Although the Bill deals with the replacement of the SQA with Qualifications Scotland, there needs to be a complete change of culture in the new body. It cannot be a rebranding ... with the same attitudes, and a lack of transparency and of trust.”

The Muir review recommended that the accreditation function be separated from the awarding function under the new arrangements. Professor Muir said that it was inappropriate to have the functions together, because it appeared to some that the SQA was marking its own homework. We have heard much about that concern today.

If the Education (Scotland) Bill is changing the SQA into qualifications Scotland with all the same people in the same place despite their endless failures, how can that be anything but a rebrand? When the cabinet secretary responded to Ms Duncan-Glancy’s intervention earlier today, it was encouraging to hear that complete separation might well be on the cards.

The second point that I want to look at is the independence of the new inspector. The report states:

“A key aim of the Bill is to strengthen the independence of the inspectorate.”

However, it also states:

“Ministers will retain the ability to direct the Chief Inspector to secure the inspection of specific or types of educational establishments and a power to specify the intervals at which inspections take place.”

From the evidence that I heard during my time as convener of the committee, I believe that it is vitally important that the inspector reports to the Parliament, not to the Scottish Government and ministers. The need for the new HM chief inspector to be, and to be seen to be, independent was repeatedly stressed by stakeholders including Dr Judith McClure CBE, who stated:

“It is vital for the future development of Scottish Education that there should be a regular assessment by qualified Inspectors of the performance, achievements and problems in individual schools and other organisations providing education. These assessments will be of use only if the inspectorate is independent and led by a gifted and experienced HM Chief Inspector of Education who is independent in this work and understands what team leadership and planning mean.”