I would like to welcome you to the Scottish Conservative Education Conference - Raising the Standard.
Education will undoubtedly be one of the major political battlegrounds in Scotland over the next two elections - Westminster and Scottish Parliament. Why? Because I don't think Scotland's children are getting a fair deal at the moment and I think at last people are starting to realise that. There is compelling evidence to show that successive Scottish Government's have failed to give all our pupils the best possible opportunities. How can it be that we have doubled spending on education during 10 years of Devolution but standards have remained static? What a wasted opportunity.
The facts speak for themselves. Last year there were nearly 40,000 exclusions from Scottish Schools, or put another way, every 90 seconds during term time there is an exclusion. That is very worrying. In fact, in 85% of exclusions the child is sent away from school without anything to do. I don’t think that is the best solution and that is why we are trying to come up with new ideas to help teachers, to help responsible children and to help the unruly pupils themselves.
But it isn’t just disruptive pupils who are the problem in schools – although they certainly don’t help. All the evidence shows that standards of reading, writing and arithmetic are at best stagnant, and at worst in decline. Again the facts are worrying. 10,000 pupils leave Scottish Schools every year unable to read or write properly - that is a staggering figure. One in six pupils leave school and can’t get a job, that’s got to change.
But I also believe that rather than just highlighting what is wrong, politicians have a duty to offer solutions. That is what today is all about. The Scottish Conservatives do have solutions - not all the solutions - but some and a few of them will be outlined today.
If you look closely at the statistics, which is difficult as the Scottish Government only publishes some of these figures every three years, it shows that there is a hard core of disruptive pupils which causes the problems. We need to do our best to help and change these kids. That’s what our policy on second chance centres is all about. It is about providing the right teaching environment for all pupils. Well-behaved pupils deserve to work in a class environment without other pupils trying to ruin it. But we also have a duty to educate these disruptive pupils – not just send them home with nothing to do. Liz Smith will elaborate on this later in her speech about Second Chance Centres.
Standards are also worrying. We need to improve standards of testing in the basic skills, and we need to do it at primary school so that we equip these youngsters with the skills they need for life. It is shocking that when 85% of pupils in primary 3 are able to meet the required standard in maths, the figure drops to only 30% in S 2. This is why so many pupils leave schools without the basic skills they need to get on in the modern world. And every one of those pupils is a damning indictment of the status quo.
However improving testing and dealing with disruptive pupils, isn’t enough. Scottish pupils are below the international average in maths and science. This is Scotland we are talking about – the country that used to be internationally renowned for its education system. We produced the renowned intellectuals not to mention the legendary scientists, engineers and doctors. If we want Scots and Scotland to succeed, we need to return to that position.
That is why we want to give parents greater choice. I know that Thomas Idergard will be speaking later about the education system in Sweden – and can I welcome Mr Idergard to this Conference. Thank you so much for coming all this way to share your expertise. I know you will be outlining how the introduction of greater choice for parents led to an overall improvement in educational standards in your country. This was not a grand Government policy, but merely allowing parents greater opportunities to choose, or even establish the school that was right for their children. It cost no more money, but has led to dramatic improvements over the last 17 years, as I am sure Mr Idergard will elaborate upon.
Of course there will be opposition to this. Look at what Neil McVey has had to put up with. He will be speaking later on about the troubles he has had in trying to choose which primary school his child should attend in South Lanarkshire. Neil had to go to court in order to give his child the best chance in life. That isn’t fair, and that is something we want to change.
We will be looking at three themes today. Firstly we want to explore the idea of improving choice in Schools. Secondly we want to look at the best ways to improve standards, and finally on the best ways to improve discipline. Why have we chosen these themes? Well because we believe they are crucial to improving education in Scotland. But this is not just what we as Conservatives think. Recent polling evidence also shows that these are the areas that voters overwhelmingly believe are important and that need radical change.
You will see from the list of speakers that there is a wide variety of opinions and expertise drawn from all over the UK and Sweden. As I have already said Mr Idergard will be speaking about choice. He is the Programme Director for Welfare & Reform at the Swedish think tank Timbro and Senior Advisor at Magnora, the largest providers of independent Schools in Sweden.
In the first session we also have Jamie Martin, Policy Analyst for Michael Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. Jamie will be talking about how the Conservative Party plan to introduce greater school choice in England. We then have Councillor Graham Simpson and Neil McVey, who will talk about the fight that parents have had in South Lanarkshire to get their pupils to attend the primary school of their choice.
After lunch, there will be a session on raising standards, and we are very fortunate to have a glittering array of expertise, Professor Lindsay Paterson, from the University of Edinburgh; John McLaren from the University of Glasgow, and Fred Forrester, whose long list of titles includes being a former teacher, lecturer and Deputy General Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, all speaking about standards and how to improve them. Of course I am aware they haven’t always agreed with the Scottish Conservatives in the past, but I am sure we can all agree on the need for change, and for solutions that can make a real difference to Scotland’s youth.
And then in the final session we will be addressing discipline and outdoor education. I am very grateful to Douglas Keil from the Scottish Police Federation for coming to speak to us about this, as it is important to remember that dealing with young people involves more than just the school itself. Similarly we are very fortunate to have Scotland rugby legend Gavin Hastings here to talk about Outdoor Education. I know how important sport and the outdoors is to Gavin, and how much work he has done on this area and I thank him for that.
As I have said the Scottish Conservatives are offering solutions but we also need to listen to experts and parents alike and that is why I am so delighted that we have such a strong programme of speakers for this Conference and a fantastic cross-section of delegates. As with some of the speakers, I am aware that some of the delegates and the Scottish Conservatives have not always agreed on everything. That is how it should be, that is healthy. We need to have a debate on the future of education in Scotland. We need to address these issues, because Scotland’s future depends on the people we produce from our schools. So while we may hold different perspectives, and different opinions, I am sure that we can all agree that raising the standard of education in Scotland is something that we can all support.
We have a lot of work to do to ensure that we offer Scotland's children the best possible start in life. We must take action now to revitalise education in Scotland. That is our future and that is what Raising the Standard is all about.