Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish Parliament
June 20, 20077
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Presiding Officer, I welcome this opportunity to set out for the chamber how this government will make its mark to deliver a smarter Scotland.
This government's shared objective is to expand opportunities for Scots to succeed from nurture through to life long learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.
People and their potential lie at the heart of creating a smarter Scotland.
This government will support learning for life guided by the following key principles;
• The best start is an early start with early intervention;
• promotion of an international perspective which develops self-confident, outward looking Scots and self-reliant communities;
• championing of an aspirational approach, learning should stretch and foster ambition;
• an egalitarian approach which embraces the Scottish tradition of the democratic intellect and a belief that education be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay
• a sense of community - education, learning and schools should be at the heart of the community;
• And finally a principle that a child and learner focus in policy is key to respond to individual need and potential.
In my first few weeks in post I have pursued this agenda vigorously, delivering;
• Action to nurture children in their early years through trialling free school meals for all primary one to primary three children in selected schools;
• Action to develop a lifelong skills strategy for Scotland, which will outline our aims, ambitions and plans for making Scotland's skills base truly world class.
• And action to remove barriers which prevent individuals accessing higher education- as signalled by our proposal dependent on the agreement of the parliament to abolish the inefficient graduate endowment fee.
Our education policies will focus on the following
• Early intervention;
• Supporting vulnerable children and families;
• Improving the learning experience in school;
• Developing skills and lifelong learning;
• And promoting excellence and innovation in higher education.
On this last point I want to make Scotland a magnet for learners, academics and business and bring about a step change in translating the output of research into sustainable wealth creation by tackling both business demand and research supply.
I want to now move on to areas where this government can and will make early commitments to progress our education and lifelong learning agenda.
On this government's commitment to early intervention - there was broad agreement during the election campaign on the merits of extending pre-school education.
Presiding Officer, as a first step towards our manifesto commitment of increasing entitlement by 50%, I am delighted to announce that from autumn 2007, the entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds will be increased to 475 hours a year.
This will create a solid platform for further expansion by putting provision that covers the school year on a proper statutory and financial footing, it will create a level playing field for children who attend private and voluntary sector centres as partner providers for state nursery provision.
In order to capitalise on that potential and maximise the benefits from investment, I am today also launching a process to develop a long term Early Years strategy covering child care, development and education to be published in the summer or autumn of 2008.
The strategy will reflect this government's view that by building self-confidence, social skills and an awareness of impact on others, our investment in the early years will create the foundations for good health and positive economic and civic engagement later in life.
Supporting vulnerable children and families will also be at the heart of a smarter Scotland. Providing help when it is needed is both the right thing to do, and an investment in our future.
The personal, social and economic waste of young people who cannot fulfil their potential and miss out on work, education or training can only be resolved for the long term if we tackle root causes.
Our children have the right to experience relevant, exciting, inspirational learning. We have to improve the learning experience in schools. We will build on the curriculum reform programme put in place during the previous administration to do that.
Children need the time and attention to flourish. A key policy of this government is to cut class sizes to 18 in P1-P3 and we are delivering early steps to drive down the size of classes.
Presiding Officer, that is why I am pleased to announce today that this government is providing local authorities funding to employ an additional 300 teachers from August 2007. 300 new jobs for new teachers after the summer holidays.
I know these extra posts will be welcomed by probationers who are now completing their induction year. These 300 additional teachers will mean capable and enthusiastic professionals will stay in teaching rather than be forced into non teaching work.
A week ago Hugh Henry on radio stated that he would give our proposals to abolish the Graduate Endowment fee, and I quote, a "fair wind" if we employed extra probationers this year and in future years. Given our good news on both the graduate endowment fee and probationer teachers I look forward to Hugh Henry's continued constructive support.
We are sorting out the problems the last government caused and are happy to do so.
We can target these 300 new posts firstly in pre-school, and then on reducing class sizes in P1 to P3. We want Councils to focus these additional resources on deprived areas - where international research evidence indicates the greatest benefits will come.
We want to see the resources freed up by declining school rolls redeployed in schools, to reduce class sizes for these younger children.
This is a major undertaking, which we must deliver while continuing to improve the preparedness and quality of new teachers, and while addressing the increasing retirement levels which we will shortly see in Scottish schools.
Not only, presiding officer, are we providing 300 extra teachers this August. Today is also the first step in setting out our ambitious programme to radically increase numbers going through teacher training.
Today I can announce 2 additional measures:
• An immediate increase of at least 250 places in Post-Graduate teacher training next session, from this Autumn.
• An increase in this year's intakes to the Bachelor of Education, increasing BEd intakes to their highest level in at least a decade.
The Universities, I know, will respond positively and enthusiastically.
So with 300 new teachers in jobs and 250 additional student teachers we will be injecting 550 additional teachers into our education system. After only a month in office we are already working to meet the demands for 100 new teachers asked for by some other parties.
These increases in teacher training will only be the beginning of the progress we need to see. Following the autumn workforce planning exercise, I will be announcing still further increases in intakes for the one year programme.
And uniquely in recent years, we will also be announcing significant growth in primary teachers who will qualify via the BEd.
For two decades or more, changes to Primary initial teacher education have come through the one year route.
Yet the teaching profession is clear that the 4 year route allows newly qualifying teachers to make a more confident start in the profession. In truth the 1 year and 4 year routes attract different types of high quality teacher, and it is important that each is kept as healthy and stimulating routes into the profession. But we need to return them to a better balance than they have been in the last number of years.
We will therefore be looking to increase significantly the places of BEd courses throughout Scotland from 2008/09, building on the more modest increases which we will be able to achieve in a few weeks when the next academic session begins.
And alongside innovations in degree content, such as those developed by Aberdeen University in their Teachers for a New Era programme, I want to see a diversification of provision in initial teacher education, with more specialisms - in science, expressive arts and early years learning.
To deliver smaller class sizes we need not only more teachers but more space, that is why last week I released an extra £40m of capital to enable Councils to bring forward spending, creating space in later years for necessary changes to accommodation to meet class size reductions, a point raised earlier.
The cost of today's early years package, nursery hours, 300 teachers and 250 student teachers is £25 million this year. We are making these investments as we believe education has the power to transform life chances. And we believe that creating a smarter Scotland has the power to transform this country's prospects.
Get it right and we energise an entire generation to care about healthy lifestyles; to be both proud of their heritage and outward looking; to be ambitious and able to contribute economically; to think about their impact on the environment; and overall to increase their chances of making a positive contribution to a modern Scotland.
Whether at nursery, school, in community based, further or higher education, we need learning to give people the skills they need for life and work. The modern Scottish workforce, must be dynamic, responsive, creative and innovative.
ALL our young people should have the opportunity to develop an awareness of the world of work and the practical and attitudinal skills they'll need to succeed in it.
I plan to ensure that all children have opportunities in school to learn and develop these skills and I plan to release the great potential of our school and college links to make these opportunities a reality.
We will ensure that it is never too late to help people gain the skills and receive high quality advice and guidance needed to unlock their potential - supporting opportunities for adults to re-engage with education in our colleges and universities and through community and work based learning .
As our skills strategy will set out, the lifelong learning agenda is key to achieving a smarter, wealthier, greener, healthier and safer Scotland.
A Smarter Scotland will be one which promotes excellence and innovation. To make a step change in translating our research ideas into economic output.
We need to make more of the excellence in our colleges and universities, creating the connections and incentives that will turn highly skilled people and innovative research into economic productivity for Scotland.
We will maintain a competitive learning system which generates education, science and research ideas that make Scotland a magnet for economic growth. Putting science to work to underpin our health, wealth and well being as a nation.
CONCLUSION
Learning is a powerful good in its own right, a necessary driver of self-development. But is it also a powerful enabler of much of what this government wants to achieve. Learning allows individuals, families and communities to prosper. It can help to reduce inequalities and improve responsible and active citizenship.
Learning will create a smarter Scotland. And it in turn means:
• training the public sector and wider workforce to support a fairer and safer Scotland;
• meeting greener challenges;
• and to develop a healthier and safer Scotland, taking responsibility for our own health and other's well being.
Presiding Officer this Government's smarter Scotland objective is about making the most of Scotland's great people potential.
The challenges are significant, but then so is the prize. And I relish the opportunity which this government has to ensure that Scotland is renowned as a smart, learning nation. One that is built on firm foundations, which frees up Scotland's talent and ambition, creating opportunities for all to flourish and excel.