An international perspective

Mike Osborne's blog post on yesterday’s video conference workshop, leading up to next week’s international perspective event can be found on the Pascal International Observatory website. You can read this through the following link: http://bit.ly/GCKPj6

An international perspective

“By 2025 Scotland will be regarded as a world-leading learning nation” An international perspective. Geddes talked of thinking globally and acting locally. However, in today’s global village,surely we must be thinking and acting globally. If we are to properly explore the proposition that Scotland will be regarded as a world-leading learning nation by 2025, we need to be mindful of developments in other parts of the world and how Scotland can connect to those places. Very few of the problems Scotland faces are unique and we can learn much from countries where radical thinking is leading to new forms of learning, education and skills and economic benefits. The next event in the GGiS/SFF project, between 10.00am and 1.00pm on 30 March 2012 will hear about case studies from around the world – Ontario, Finland, France, Sweden and the USA via a pre-recorded video conference held with the GGiS / SFF project team. The workshop will then break into a café to discuss what lessons can be drawn for lessons for Scotland and for our project. To register for a place email events@ggis.org.uk.

New national exams debate

Today, MSPs will debate whether the implementation of the new national exams should be delayed by a year to allow teachers and schools extra time to prepare. The parties are currently divided, with Hugh Henry MSP, Scottish Labour’s spokesperson, calling on the government to delay implementation by a year. A survey carried out by EIS has found that fewer than ten per cent of teachers are prepared for the implementation of the new national qualifications and 80 per cent described the level of support from the Scottish Government as unsatisfactory. EIS are also calling for a delay in implementation or for schools to at least be given the option of delaying by a year. Cabinet Secretary, Michael Russell MSP has said that there will be an audit of schools in the coming months to ensure they are ready for the new exams.

Three new event reports

Three event reports from the GGiS/SFF project are now available online: Early years, The unreasonable learner's network and Education entrepreneurship. These can be found on the publications page.

Government unveils plans for post-16 education reform

In today’s newspapers, the Scottish Government has outlined reforms for post 16 education. Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has unveiled plans to smooth out the learner journey from school into further or higher education and vocational training. Mr Russell also revealed plans to widen apprenticeship access to degree level and progress college mergers where demand exists. Plans have been welcomed by Universities Scotland and the NUS. The NUS have particularly welcomed the commitment to a minimum income of £7000 per year for university students. More details of this are expected of this in the summer. The reforms follow the ‘Review of post 16 education and vocational training’ which was carried out by Willy Roe CBE. The report stated that the learner should be put at the centre of all education reforms and called for a re-think in how we fund post 16 education and encourage all learners to reach their full potential.

CFE Summit

Today's Scottish news carries to storyline: Education Directors are meeting today to try and agree a common position on rolling out the new National 4 and 5 exams. The summit comes after East Renfrewshire Council and many independent schools announced plans to postpone implementation of the new exams by a year. Parents’ leaders have called for clarity and the EIS have said that there are serious concerns coming from teachers and schools over a lack of detail on the new exams. Postponing the exams, however, would not be without problems including a loss of momentum and practical difficulties. Last week, Education Scotland, ADES, SQA, the Scottish Government and the National Parent Forum issued a joint statement in an attempt to reassure parents that implementation of Curriculum for Excellence was on track but concerns still exist. More details of the summit should be available tomorrow and we will update you accordingly.

ICT and Scotland's Schools

Michael Gove's comments about ICT in England prompts me to reflect on the position in Scotland. It is true that the trend has been towards a focus on the application of ICT in school education over the last decade or so . The assumption was that 'computing' was something which was for post-school and the vital importance of stimulating interest and establishing a grounding in the nature of computing itself at school was downplayed. However, Curriculum for Excellence explicitly includes Computing Science as part of general education for all up to age 15, including aspects of programming at level 4. More conventional use of ICT is a cross-curricular responsibility. As with much of CfE, the challenge is to ensure that the original vision is put into practice and built upon.