The outgoing president of Scotland’s largest teaching union has accused the Scottish Government of declaring “open season” on those in charge of our classrooms.
Tommy Castles also launched a broadside on the country’s qualifications authority, the SQA, comparing those who run it to Dr Who villains the Daleks.
In his keynote speech to the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) AGM in Perth, he issued warnings over excessive bureaucracy, growing teacher workload and the risk of increasing political interference in education.
Addressing teachers and lecturers from across Scotland at the city’s Concert Hall, he slammed a recent speech by Education Secretary Angela Constance, which admitted there were major problems in the country’s education system.
Mr Castles also hit out at the reaction to her address in Glasgow last month where she admission that standards of reading and writing in schools were not good enough.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has subsequently dropped a heavy hint that testing could be reintroduced to primary schools, under pressure from the Conservatives at Holyrood.
Mr Castles said: “On Curriculum for Excellence, I’ll quote Sinatra: ‘Flying high in April shot down in May.’ We spend up to ten years implementing CfE and then after a half hour speech made by a politician to a group of academics it is open season on us and the CfE.”
On testing, he added: “Where does this assumption come from that seemingly all assessment stopped on day one of CfE? Schools continue to assess and in part do this by testing.
“Proper assessment should be relevant, manageable and inform the learning process. We cannot go back to the testing regime of 5-14 which did not inform the learning process but created a target driven culture which corrupted the learning process.”
The senior teacher said those in charge of classrooms were still overburdened by bureaucracy and the new Curriculum for Excellence has failed to cut workload through “decluttering”.
The news National Qualifications, which are still underway, were described as “a nightmare forteachers, pupils and parents” and it was claimed major issues have still not been resolved.
Mr Castles said: “Was it the Daleks or the SQA who drove fear into people by shouting? ‘Exemplification! Verification! Extermination!’?
The UK Government’s economic policies were also criticised, as the outgoing president said “austerity” was a major challenge to closing the attainment gap.
He said: “If the Scottish Government wants to narrow the attainment gap then give us time to teach.”
Mr Castles added: “If you want to see the deep learning the CfE promised then declutter the curriculum. If you want more time spent on ‘the basics’, declutter the curriculum.”
Scottish Conservative young people spokeswoman Liz Smith said: “The comments from the EIS come as no surprise and only add to the pressure on the SNP government to do better on education. Teacher workloads are increasing under the SNP and this has inevitably led to more stress-related staff absences.
“It is the consequence of over 4,000 fewer teachers, cuts to support staff and the huge burden of dealing with the difficulties of implementing the Curriculum for Excellence and the new exam system.”
Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, said:“The EIS is right to highlight that inequity in education remains a major challenge. I share outgoing President Tommy Castles’ concern about the impact of austerity measures on efforts to close the attainment gap for children from our most deprived communities. We are all swimming against an unforgiving tide of funding cuts so it is important we work together on this common goal.
“We need an education system that is fair and which provides excellence to every child, irrespective of their background or circumstances. As parents, teachers, schools, local and central government, we all have a role in this.
“This Government will continue to work closely with the EIS and others to implement Curriculum for Excellence, giving teachers the freedom they need to deliver our world-class curriculum. We are committed to making sure councils have the right number and highest quality of teachers in our schools which is why we have offered councils £51 million, including an additional £10 million over and above last year’s settlements, to support teacher numbers.”
For more on this story and all the reaction, see Friday’s Courier.