West Dunbartonshire Councillor Martin Rooney

Martin Rooney

SNP ‘OMNISHAMBLES’ ON EDUCATION

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John Swinney’s problems in the education brief are mounting up in a series of remarkable failures reported today.

The Herald reports that John Swinney is set to U-turn on his flagship scheme to set up Regional Education directors, the centrepiece of his “governance reforms” following pressure from Cosla and Scottish Labour.

Also today, the Times reports that over a quarter of teacher training places have been left unfilled for the forthcoming academic year, leaving Mr Swinney’s claims that he has dealt with the recruitment crisis in tatters.

Meanwhile the Times Educational Supplement reports that Education Scotland has destroyed all school inspection information it held prior to 2008, in the face of criticism that schools are being left uninspected for years on end.

Labour said the cases show that the SNP management of the education portfolio is an ‘omnishambles’.
 
Labour education spokesperson Iain Gray said:

“This is humiliating for John Swinney. This is not an instance of one policy failure, but rather an omnishambles across the education portfolio.

“John Swinney has u-turned on one of his flagship reforms to education, been caught spinning nonsense on teacher training places and deleted years’ worth of school inspections data.

“When Nicola Sturgeon made education her top priority John Swinney was supposed to be the safe pair of hands to push through reform. Instead he has constantly dropped the ball on education.”


On John Swinney u-turning on regional directors, Iain Gray said:
“If John Swinney has listened to sense and backed down on his Regional Directors of Education, that is a very welcome, albeit embarrassing, climb-down.
“Local authorities have made a strong common sense proposal to improve support for learning while maintaining local control of schools.
“However the SNP are still threatening to set school budgets centrally, and they need to drop that unwanted idea too.
“Above all, the Education Secretary needs to listen to the evidence that our teachers are among the lowest paid and hardest worked in the developed world, and do something about that too.”

On teacher training places, Iain Gray said:
 
“I am sick of hearing from John Swinney that he has resolved the teacher recruitment crisis by increasing teacher training places.
“He must know that hundreds of these places are sitting empty, especially in key subjects such as Physics and Maths.
“The OECD has just told us that Scottish teachers are among the lowest paid and hardest worked in the developed world.  We need Mr Swinney to urgently fix that instead of launching half-baked advertising campaigns which do nothing but provide him with something to tweet.
“The Health Secretary is paying bursaries to incentivise graduates to move into medicine – why can’t Mr Swinney do the same to encourage new teachers of Maths and Physics?  It really is time John Swinney put money where his mouth is when it comes to teachers and teacher recruitment.”

On the deletion of schools inspection data, Iain said:
“This is simply astonishing, irresponsible behaviour by the key public body responsible for Scotland’s school system. Education Scotland has been under fire before for acting in the interests of Scottish Ministers rather than Scottish schools and pupils, but to destroy records so that we cannot judge progress or otherwise in schools is breathtaking.
“Not only does it show contempt for the historical context of developments in Scottish schools, it looks like nothing less than a wilful attempt to frustrate transparency and freedom of information legislation.
“The SNP government’s record on freedom of information is a disgrace, and now Education Scotland appear complicit too. The Information Commissioner should have something to say about this.”


NOTES 
 
Teacher-training courses are failing to attract postgraduates – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teacher-training-courses-are-failing-to-attract-postgraduates-wdxnllxv7 

Scottish Government agrees U-turn over controversial regional school plans – http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15564603.Scottish_Government_agrees_U_turn_over_controversial_school_plans/ 

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