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NATIONAL PRIORITIES IN EDUCATION: Performance Report 2003
MINISTERIAL FOREWORD
This document represents a step change in the supply of information to parents, pupils, policy makers and others interested in the performance of Scottish education. It is a rich source of data and gives us a basis for reporting on improvement in education into the future. In many ways Scotland is leading world practice in systematically planning and monitoring improvement across a range of measures.
The Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 places a duty on me, as Minister for Education, to secure improvement in the quality of school education which is provided for Scotland. To fulfil that responsibility I need to know whether improvement is taking place.
The Act also places a duty on education authorities to secure improvement in the quality of school education in the schools they manage. Authorities must also provide school-based evidence to their local communities through annual statements of education improvement objectives for each of the National Priorities, and annual reports on progress.
The purpose of this report is to draw together all the evidence to date, including authorities' first Progress Reports which they were obliged to publish in January 2003. It will inform the policy choices I will be making at a national level, and I want it to mark a new departure in Scotland in terms of reporting on performance within education. As well as focusing on the difference that education makes to young people and exploring the context in which it takes place, this document draws on a wide variety of data sources - international surveys, strategy documents and national statistics. I want all that information to form the basis of a wider understanding of the education experienced by our young people.
The school improvement framework encourages local diversity of approach, so summarising the position nationwide has been a challenging exercise. I am pleased to see how much activity has been reported on, and the many steps being taken to develop the abilities, talents and personalities of all school pupils. Authorities and schools have demonstrated their commitment, even where the capacity to deliver change is less than ideal.
There has been much progress - but in many areas of performance the evidence about education outcomes is missing, and we can still improve on how we gather the information. This is especially true in the key areas where I want to see even more improvement in the years to come. I look forward to seeing:
- the achievements of the lowest performing pupils brought closer to those of the highest
- how schools build on the good practice which already exists for dealing with different forms of indiscipline
- the creativity and ambition of school pupils reflected in their achievements.
In this report, we set out the position from which progress can be traced in the years to come. We will be reviewing the position annually and I will comment on the developments we see before 2006 when we will publish a follow-up report.
Peter Peacock
MSP
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