ATL

Scotland

Keith Robson on the Scottish education issues have recently come very much to the fore

Education has featured prominently on the political agenda in the weeks following the summer recess. Firstly, the Scottish Conservatives held a conference outlining their agenda on four policy areas: 'Choice', 'Outdoor education', 'Second chances' and 'Testing the 3Rs'.

Also the Scottish Government published its draft budget with local authorities having to accept their share of a reduction in overall spending. The impact of this on school budgets, teacher numbers and job opportunities for post-probationers remains to be seen.

Elsewhere, the Cabinet Secretary announced that the Scottish Government intends to legislate for a maximum P1 class size of 25, down from the current level of 30 pupils. This drew criticism from the opposition parties as a reversal of the SNP's election manifesto promise to reduce all class sizes to 18 in the lifetime of the Parliament.
And finally, Lord Sutherland, former convenor of Universities Scotland, called for the reintroduction of tuition fees in Scotland for middle-class families with "a percentage" of the sums raised to be invested in scholarships for students from poorer backgrounds.

ATL Scotland is always keen to shape the education agenda rather than react to it and we would like to hear your priorities within education that we should be addressing. Furthermore, we would like to set up a short-life working group to explore one of the issues in more detail. If you have any pressing issues or would like to participate in this policy initiative then do email me.