Education reform: engagement opportunities
Engagement with groups related to the reform of Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Webinars
Professor Muir has held five live webinars during the months of September and October, one of which was specifically aimed at parents and carers. Over 100 people attended these online events. The webinars were an opportunity to hear first-hand about his reform work, and express views and ideas, beyond or in addition to the online consultation. The webinars were well attended and all the comments made throughout were captured and collated and passed to Professor Muir to form part of his considerations.
Written consultation
An important part of engagement on reform has been the national online consultation which was launched on 30 September 2021. The consultation was in four sections and was open to all who are interested in the future of Scottish education. The consultation invited views and ideas on the following:
- vision
- curriculum and assessment
- roles and responsibilities
- replacing the Scottish Qualifications Authority and reforming Education Scotland
The closing date for consultation responses was 26 November 2021.
Just under 800 responses to the consultation were received and these are now being analysed and will be used to inform the recommendations in Professor Muir’s report.
Engagement with the Practitioner and Stakeholder Advisory Group
Individual meetings with PSAG members took place from September 2021 until the end of November 2021. These have been an opportunity for Professor Muir to hear first-hand the views and ideas from stakeholders and organisations representing practitioners and others across our education sectors on the implications of reform arising from the OECD report Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence Into the Future.
As well as individual meetings, the 50+ organisations were brought together for two half-day sessions, one in October and another at the end of November. They were also allocated in to one of seven sub-groups. These sub-groups were designed to allow more focused discussions with Professor Muir and members of his Expert Panel.
PSAG members, at all stages of the process were encouraged to engage directly with their members/constituents to ensure they were bringing forward views and ideas on behalf of their whole sector on the reform proposals.
Engagement with SQA and Education Scotland
The engagement programme set out by Professor Ken Muir has involved a wide range of stakeholders and partners who are likely to be impacted to a greater or lesser degree by the replacement of SQA and the reform of Education Scotland.
With the focus on SQA and Education Scotland, Professor Muir has prioritised engagement with both organisations and several meetings have taken place with the senior leadership teams and staff groups.
Meetings with education governance groups
Professor Muir has been attending meetings of groups that have education governance responsibilities, such as the Curriculum and Assessment Board, and other engagement events such as conferences and seminars. These governance groups and events have members attending who represent a wide range of sectors and interests in Scottish education and have provided another opportunity to hear views and ideas on the reform programme.
All of the above engagements were important in widening the opportunities for practitioners and all interested parties to have their views and ideas brought to the attention of Professor Muir to help in his preparation of his independent report due in January 2022.
Consultation with children and young people
Professor Muir worked closely with the Children’s Parliament, Scottish Youth Parliament and Together to make sure children and young people’s voices were heard in the process. This included an online survey for young people, who were attending secondary school or college. Given the sometimes complex nature of the topic there are also online tools available for adults to use when supporting children and young people to respond. You can find this via the Scottish Youth Parliament - online tools available for adults to use when supporting children and young people to respond or Children’s Parliament webpage.
The online survey for children and young people closed on 19 November 2021, with a great response:
- 1210 primary school children engaged with the online or downloadable toolkits, taking part in conversations facilitated by adults known to them. This included 53 Members of Children’s Parliament
- 394 secondary school young people engaged with the toolkit designed for them, again facilitated by an adult known to them. This included 25 Members of Scottish Youth Parliament’s Learner Panel
- 3,889 12 to 18 year-olds responded to the online survey
Further opportunities to share your views and issues
Professor Muir also offered an opportunity to hear from individuals or any organisation that felt they had something to offer on the reform programme. This might simply have been in the form of a short email or the submission of a paper with views and ideas. The closing date for submissions of this kind was Friday 26 November 2021. Around 150 submissions were received direct to the EducationReform@gov.scot inbox in addition to the 650+ online consultation responses. These are now being analysed and will be used to inform the recommendations in his report.
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