Education and skills - National Improvement Framework 2025: improvement plan

Outcome 7

Outcome 7 – an education system engaging in digital technology to enhance all aspects of learning and teaching, supported by a digitally-skilled workforce, and tackling digital inequality.

What the evidence is telling us

Recent Scottish educational reviews, including those by the OECD and ICEA, as well as the Hayward Review and the Muir Review, all highlight the critical role of digital technology in shaping the future of education in Scotland. Collectively, these reviews advocate for improvements to digital infrastructure and connectivity, appropriate access to devices and digital services, and opportunities for digital upskilling of the education workforce. Taken together, universal enhancement in these areas will lay strong digital foundations, enabling the education system to take advantage of technologies and drive improvement, from reducing administrative burdens and streamlining processes, to enhancing the educational experiences of learners.

However, we know from research undertaken by the Scottish Government in 2022 that digital provision as a whole is inconsistent across schools and local authorities.

The third formal report from the International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA) recommended that the Scottish Government should urgently explore the implications of AI for education to identify related curriculum and professional learning policy developments, and work with universities, teachers’ organisations, business, parents, students and community, to support measured implementation. It also recommended that the established policy commitment to address inequality in education should take account of the likelihood of an increasing digital divide associated with access to AI.

What we will do to deliver

• We are currently developing a new digital strategy for school education in Scotland, in partnership with COSLA and key education stakeholders. The strategy will outline the important role we believe digital tools and services play in the future of Scottish education and will highlight the key features of successful technology provision. It will consider both people and technology aspects of digital education in Scotland to help support deployment and purposeful use of technology in Scotland’s schools. We continue to work with partners on development of this strategy and an initial high level document and roadmap is due for publication in 2025.
• The Scottish Government is committed to investing £10m for enhanced digital provision during the 25/26 financial year.
• The Scottish Government will work with Qualifications Scotland, HMIE and Education Scotland within the context of Scotland’s AI Strategy and the work of the Scottish AI Alliance to ensure that AI can be used effectively and safely in learning, teaching and assessment.
• Education Scotland will deliver three ‘thematic weeks’ on digital learning and teaching, covering ‘digital literacy week’, ‘computing science week’ and ‘AI in schools’
• Education Scotland will work with local authorities to develop options for the future of the Glow
• Education Scotland will continue to evolve the existing Glow service, working with local authorities, including a focus on AI tools.
• The curriculum improvement cycle will provide an opportunity to ensure that young people are being offered a curriculum that allows them to develop a range of digital skills including an understanding of emerging technologies.
• HMIE will ensure all new inspection frameworks take sufficient account of digital technologies to support its positive impact on the delivery of high quality education and successful outcomes for all learners.

How we will measure progress

An approach to monitoring and evaluation will be included in the Digital Education Strategy.

We will use the evidence from HMIE inspections to assess the impact that digital technology is having on the quality of education.