Tonight I will be attending the TESS (Times Educational Supplement Scotland) pre-election debate at the National Gallery in Scotland. With the Scottish elections approaching this is an opportunity to quiz Michael Russell, Education Secretary and his counterparts in Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
I haven’t had a chance to put any questions together but here’s a few topics I hope turn up:
- the education budget is no longer ringfenced meaning there is a constant fight for funds
- since the SNP announced that all three and four year olds should have ‘access to a nursery teacher’ local authorities saw this as the green light for getting rid of full time nursery teachers and instead making them floating positions with one nursery teacher covering several nurseries. This is despite evidence that children who have regular access to a nursery teacher do better in school.
- the fact that the maximum class size promise has been abandoned
- what is to be done about the low levels of literacy in Scottish schools. Children reaching secondary who can barely read and write
I shall report back tomorrow.
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