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SSBA Response to National Debate
9 July 2002
PRESS RELEASE – Embargoed until 23.59 Wednesday 10th July 2002
SSBA response to the National Debate
The Scottish School Board Association today submitted the findings from School Boards the length and breadth of Scotland to the Governments National Debate on Education.
Ann Hill, Chief Executive of SSBA said "In general parents, pupils and teachers are fairly happy with the Scottish education system. There are many reasons for this but one of the most surprising is that they believe that because we don’t have very many private schools in Scotland outside main cities, the state system has flourished and remained comprehensive. It was also agreed that the importance of denominational schools should not be overlooked"
"Pupil Councils and School Boards have been recognised and valued, information is more readily available to parents, and parents in particular are very impressed with the professionalism and dedication of teachers finding them more approachable than they used to be and valued as experts.
However, it was felt that teachers were burdened with paperwork and assessment and this had to be addressed urgently as it detracts from the time available to teach the children."
However, among the improvements recommended by the School Boards are lower class sizes. Ann Hill said "SSBA in consultation with the teaching unions several years back set their policy at a recommended 25 pupils for a one age class and 20 for a mixed age class. This opinion has not changed over the past 5 years and parents are expecting the Government to do something about it".
There is real concern over the lack of supply teachers, particularly in rural areas and support staff should be increased. Schools should also be encouraged to use other ‘specialists’ in schools such as employers, dramatists, senior pupils, health officials and members of the local community. The age-range of teachers also needs to be addressed to recruit younger people into the profession.
Disruption in the classroom needs to be tackled urgently. Members felt that these pupils should be removed from the class to specialist learning centres which could either be included in the school or centrally in the authority. Pupils would be rewarded for improvement in their behaviour by being allowed to join the class again for short periods at first and by further reward towards full inclusion. This would have the benefit of helping the children with the problem as well as allowing the other children to benefit from effective education.
Members considered that setting should be introduced in Secondary schools, particularly in mathematics and English.
Children starting school between 4 and 5 was considered about right as long as parents had the option of deferring entry for a year if the child wasn’t ready. However, it was recognised that with the introduction of nursery education children were now ready for the structure day at 4/5.
The university curriculum should be introduced into the 6th year curriculum in schools. This would do away with what some pupils consider to be a wasted year of doing modules which they will never use again. Young people felt they would be too young at the end of 5th year to go to university. They stated that they could persuade the pubs that they were 18 by the end of 6th year but ‘never in a month of Sundays’ could they persuade the pubs by the end of 5th year.
"Summer holidays are too long and should be cut" is the call from School Boards. There is also support for 8 week terms which would relieve teacher stress, their would be less pressure on staff and pupils, particularly in secondary schools and pupils wouldn’t get so bored. It was felt that the last week and the first week of the school year is wasted. Many pupils are on holiday by the last week and many schools use the final week for social development, e.g. school concerts, sports days, etc. Those in secondary school expressed the view that they had to repeat everything in the first week back because of absences and forgetting what had been taught.
There was universal support for all schools in Scotland to have the same holidays. However, School Boards felt that local public holidays should remain flexible. There was only minor support for the change of the school week.
Some of the items on the ‘wish list’ for the school of the future included; swimming pools in every school, facilities which the whole community could enjoy, more out of school hours use of facilities (no extra hours for teachers), lap-tops for all pupils and teachers, better resourced libraries linked to the World Wide Web, water fountains in each classroom, improved toilet facilities and heating, nutritious lunches, promotion of inclusion and equality and compulsory continuing professional development for teachers and information evenings and leaflets for parents.
Home was considered the most important factor in a child’s life. In remote areas of Scotland pupils from the age of 12 are required to leave home on a Sunday and only return on the next Friday evening. This should not be encouraged. The use of modern technology needs to be expanded urgently to address this problem. Primary schools in these areas could be expanded to include IT conferencing equipment.
Ann Hill concluded "There is a feeling out there that this exercise will be a waste of time, money and effort. Parents and teachers felt that they had been consulted on a great many things and do not always feel that their views have been listened to. The timescale would indicate that no changes will be made in their ‘school lifetime’ and by the time it is their views will be outdated.
However, they felt better for having got it off their chests!
Contact:
Ann Hill, Chief Executive, SSBA
