Parents’ evenings are a chaotic “nightmare” that should be scrapped, the head of a leading Scottish parents’ organisation has said.
Eileen Prior, chief executive of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, claims that parents’ evenings are an “institution that fails us all”.
Ms Prior claims teachers often end up talking about the wrong child and parents do not have time for a proper discussion at the events.
She says schools should communicate with parents throughout the year instead.
But leading headteachers disagree with her claims and say that nothing can beat the “face-to-face contact” that parents’ evenings allow for.
Ms Prior was speaking at a conference for the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland.
She said: “As a teacher – I am not one – but I dare say they are a nightmare too.
“Parents don’t really get the opportunity to share their concerns to any great degree or to ask questions, nor is the teacher really able to.
“This is an institution in our system that fails us all – parents, pupils and the teaching profession.
“I’ve never met any parent or teacher who thinks they are worth doing the way they are done. But we seem to be stuck with them because, ‘This is what we do’.”
