School and college teacher recommendations: consultation analysis

Introduction

On 31 May 2023, the Scottish Government published "All Learners in Scotland Matter", the final report of the National Discussion on Education, facilitated by Professor Carol Campbell and Professor Alma Harris. This report outlines the Vision, Values and Call to Action for the future direction of Scottish education.

On 22 June 2023, we published "It’s Our Future", the final report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment which was led by Professor Louise Hayward. Recommendations in this report centre around the introduction of a Scottish Diploma of Achievement (SDA) in the Senior Phase, with three mandatory elements: Personal Pathway, Programmes of Learning and Project Learning.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills committed to seeking views from the teaching profession and others across the system before responding to these reports.

An online survey was created to enable teachers and college teaching staff to provide views on these reports. Supporting materials and a link to the online survey were sent to all schools via Directors of Education, and to all college Principals at the end of July 2023. Views from the independent school sector were sought via the Scottish Council of Independent Schools who were asked to share the survey with their members. The survey was open for 13 weeks and closed on the 1^st November 2023.

The consultation received 2,152 responses. 61% (1,317) of responses were from individuals and 39% (835) were from groups. In total, the group responses represent the views of around 9,300 people. Almost all respondents were from schools, a small number were from the college sector and a handful of responses were received from the Community Learning and Development and Youth Work Sector.

Since respondents were self-selected, they may not be representative of teachers across the entire education sector. The sample may be skewed towards teachers who have a particular interest or perspective on the proposals for education reform. This could mean that certain viewpoints are either overrepresented or underrepresented, making it difficult to draw generalisable conclusions.