School reforms progress

The principles underpinning Scotland’s school reforms have been strongly supported by the International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA).

More power and resources are being devolved to schools, which will be supported to raise attainment by new Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

During two days of discussion, the council commended the considerable progress that has been made to improve the curriculum, assessments and school governance. They also said they looked forward to seeing how the bold strategy is implemented to raise educational attainment for all.

The ICEA encouraged ministers to continue to build on what is going well and:

• Made suggestions about to how put learning and teaching at the heart of the Regional Improvement Collaboratives to ensure they provide the right level of support and expertise to schools
• Put forward ideas about how to increase and deepen collaboration, including ensuring students and parents are engaged and have a voice
• Highlighted opportunities to create new professional pathways to inspire and build leadership at all levels in Scottish education

In a joint statement, members of the ICEA said:

“We can see clear and positive momentum in Scottish education, particularly in relation to the devolution of more power and resources directly to schools.

“We strongly support the principles underpinning these changes as it is important they are designed to improve education, rather than being structural change for its own sake.

“The Scottish Government now needs to continue to build on what is going well and recognise and address challenges. We have made a number of initial suggestions to improve learning and teaching, increase and deepen collaboration, and build leadership at all levels in the education system. We will now prepare a more complete report for ministers setting out actions to deliver our shared ambition for Scottish education.”