Schools
SNP cuts are causing local authorities to abandon key class size targets that have proven to be effective in tackling literacy and numeracy difficulties.
At least four of Scotland’s 32 councils are no longer following guidelines introduced by Labour of capping pupil numbers at 20 in English and Maths in the first two years of secondary school.
I am not opposed in principle to the introduction of school clusters which has been proposed in East Lothian. There have been school clusters in my own constituency for many years under Local Authority management and they work very well. Bringing schools within a cluster under a single school management structure could well deliver benefits, as could new ways of extending parental involvement in that management structure – but it doesn’t require removing education from Councils. So far I have seen nothing from East Lothian’s director Don Ledingham or from Councillor Dave Berry that leads me to think that schools need to be taken out of the control of an education authority in order to make it possible to change the way they are currently managed.
Des debates the merits of structural reform in Scottish education.
