International Council of Education Advisers Report 2018-2020

From Abnormal to Extraordinary

This is not a time for getting back to normal. It is not even time to develop a modified new normal. It is time to look to the future to redesign Scottish education as a universally designed system for all contingencies and disruptions. This system can and should develop self-directed learners; provide access to digitally-based learning as a human right; transform assessment to be continuous, inclusive and responsive; and ensure that all students and teachers are equipped with online and outdoor capabilities that will be pandemic-proof in the future and significantly better in the present. All of this can and should occur within a universally designed system that becomes increasingly inclusive, responsive, agile and collaborative, with changes in government resource allocations that reflect this shift.

The future will not be about blended or hybrid learning, just as a mix of whole class teaching with group-based learning is not blended or hybrid either. The point is simply to ensure that post-pandemic changes are as routine a part of everyone's learning and teaching environment, and as much an ingrained part of their own expertise as any other aspect of teaching and learning. It is time to move from this and next years' abnormal interruption to young people's learning, to an extra-ordinary future for all their education. Everyone involved in Scotland's education system has an important role to play in leading future improvements for Scotland's schools and students.