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Section 5 Education

"I have seen the difference in the confidence and self-esteem of teenagers leaving high-school after a childhood of creative expression and exposure to the arts, compared to those who leave with few cultural experiences.
Jack McConnell, St Andrew's Day, 2003

5.1 Our remit

The Commission was required to "acknowledge the importance of education in all its findings and liaise where appropriate with the Curriculum Review." ¹

5.2 Our understanding

From the beginning, the Commission has acknowledged the importance of education with questions in both phases of its consultation and the establishment of an Education Thinking Group. Early contact was also made with he Executive's Education Department and officials working on the Curriculum Review.

5.3 Consultation

During the consultation process no single issue recurred with such regularity as the importance of the integration of culture and creativity into education. Respondents from all areas of the cultural sector advocated the integration of culture or the adoption of cultural education in all stages of education from early-years, to school, as part of the Curriculum Review, and throughout further, higher and continuing education and life-long learning.

"The arts are a means of expression and understanding: they should be integrated into every part of the school curriculum with far greater co-operation /co-ordination between the various departments in schools."
Mary Bourne

"The role of education at every level in producing both the agents and the context of culture is indisputable."
Glasgow University

"Education is a vital part in any cultural strategy… more use of and teaching of cultural heritage in school curricula and higher education programmes should be encouraged."
The National Trust for Scotland

"Schools form the agenda for our lives. It is crucial that gaps in understanding and provision for the arts should be addressed, and radical approaches considered. We propose that the first year/s of formal education should focus on creative development as a means of addressing this agenda.
Scottish Arts Council

"Young people need to have an early introduction to arts and culture… It is therefore vital that all children under the age of 10 have access to cultural experiences, and this is probably best done through schools, ideally facilitated through the Cultural Coordinators programme… In secondary school culture should form a core part of the curriculum… Life-long and community learning should be a key part of national and local government funded arts and cultural provision".
Cultural Services Manager - Arts, Dumfries and Galloway Council

Whilst recognising the need to expand the role of culture and arts in education, there was an awareness that education had perhaps lagged behind some of the major developments in society over the last thirty years. Many people singled out a need to teach children to be literate not only in terms of words, but also in visual and spatial literacy and especially in media or 'design' literacy so they can better understand the world that surrounds them, and the mass media and advertising that constantly bombard them.

There was an acute awareness that there is also a need to address teachers' confidence and ability to deliver cultural education. Research into this area revealed that many courses do exist but that better marketing and promotion is required of these courses.

"Develop continuing professional development programmes for teachers to enable them in the longer term to deliver the curriculum using the arts."
West Lothian Youth Theatre

The concept of community schools, housing facilities such as professional artists' studios, performance spaces, facilities for community and voluntary sector bodies, was a key one to emerge from our consultation. It was reinforced by consideration of wider government policies and from study of international practice, particularly in Scandinavia. The Commission also spent some time exploring information relating to the effect of a well designed and stimulating education environment and some of this is reported below. Further work in this area is required, however, particularly with the redevelopment of the schools estate.

5.4 Our thinking

The Curriculum Review ² is ambitious, clear thinking and succinct. Young Scots will be educated to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, and effective contributors to society and at work. Our recommendations support these objectives and are founded on the conviction that education in, and through the medium of, arts and culture can play a strong role in promoting these capacities in young people.

"Brains are biological and minds are cultural. Minds are acquired through experience." ³
Elliot Eisner

Schools have the important job of imparting knowledge but the key educational action is to create understanding of that knowledge. Understanding is achieved through experiences, both real and vicarious. We believe that cultural experiences develop our sense of the world and our view of our 'self' in the world. Following Eisner, we believe that arts and cultural activities can ensure understanding is enjoyable, effective, active and challenging.

5.4.1 Importance of early years

What we are doing in the school is, as Elliot Eisner says, building minds. We have been impressed by the longitudinal study carried out by the Institute of Education and Birkbeck College in London and the University of Oxford ⁴ and the Chicago work by James Heckman ⁵ on early education. Both indicate that the effective investment in education begins in the early years from age two. These are also the years of greatest parental involvement when the bond remains physical: at home where the child is handled in being taught to wash and dress and on the journey to school, when parent and child hold hands.

The child's understanding of the world begins in play and the experiences of sharing, of song, movement, colour, rhyme, handwork, rhythm, and story. The Commission recognises four key partners in this activity: parent, child, educator and artist. The recommendations below add to the thinking of the curriculum experts who have reviewed education in Scotland. The curriculum is in mid-review and is said to be already over-crowded. The need to "de-clutter" is understood and approved and the recommendations below are made in the knowledge of that situation. They also reinforce our core belief in arts and cultural experiences, inside and outside the classroom, as central to learning.

5.4.2 Parents and early learning

All parents of young children should be closely involved with their learning. All parents should be encouraged to see themselves as their baby's first and most enduring teacher. Parents need support and those parents least able to take on a learning role deserve enhanced support. We heard evidence that pre-school facilities and work in Scotland are already among the best in the world. Greater involvement for parents at all stages of their learning is a logical and urgent progression and is congruent with the draft Bill, Making a Difference ⁶.

Books and storytelling

The whole process of learning through the arts begins with story and with parents reading to children. Targeted at babies as young as 8 months, the UK Bookstart scheme is the first national baby-book gifting scheme in the world. It is now in its sixth year in Scotland, well run and developed by Scottish Book Trust. Bookstart gifts to every child a free bag of books at around 8 months old. This scheme lays the foundation of the Scottish child's engagement with the arts. For many parents, some on their own or living in deprived circumstances, it draws attention to children's books and shows that book-sharing is an integral part of growing up.

Other features of the proposed extended scheme run by Scottish Book Trust are:

• Bookstart Book Crawl which incentivises library-joining

• Bookstart Rhymetimes which bring together parents and children to recite and sing traditional Scottish rhymes and stories

• Bookstart Plus is a toddler bag of books

• My Bookstart Treasure Box is a 3-4 year old pack.

Local authorities have supported the scheme and 12 out of 31 participating authorities have a dedicated Bookstart worker: 21 part-time and full-time workers in total. 14 local authorities have a steering group, or utilise another forum, to organise work on Bookstart.

The academic evidence for its success, as indicated by the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education ( EPPE) project, is clear:

"Our study has shown that the home environment can really make a difference…more important than the parent's educational qualifications is what the parents do with the child… Education matters, qualifications matter, but if they read to the child, play rhyming games, sing songs, talk about letters and sounds, and takes the child to the library, these behaviours at home are more important and can compensate for a low education level."⁷
Professor Kathy Sylva

The Commission believes that this scheme and its extensions, as proposed by Scottish Book Trust, have enormous value to children and to society as a whole. The outcomes of the scheme are set in terms of well-being, which make it as much a health priority as an educational or cultural matter. Therefore, funds for this scheme should involve discussions with the Health and Education portfolio holders in order to support this vital work presently funded via the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Communities Scotland should also play a part in the funding. The UK scheme began with sponsorship from Sainsbury's. It is also a priority to ensure that sponsorship for Bookstart is maximised.

Scottish stories, rhyme and song

We believe that the books distributed by the Booktrust scheme and its extensions should be chosen by Scottish Book Trust to offer the best introduction to culture through Scottish materials for parent and child alike. Story leads the way to the rest of the arts and culture for child and parent and the Bookstart scheme should ensure that Scottish material is prioritised. In this way, we can promote traditional and contemporary Scottish rhyme and song and build the appetite for performance at later stages in learning. Through this process, a virtuous cycle can be formed to the benefit of the whole community that supports the writing, designing, printing, publishing, sale and borrowing of books in Scotland. We believe this would be an important and direct way of supporting Scottish writers.

5.5 Establishing a learning partnership

Partnership implies access and integration and we assume that schools are already welcoming to the other partners in education as well as to students and staff. The Commission applauds the intentions of Making a Difference, the draft bill on improving parents' involvement in schools. ⁸ In particular, the objectives of supporting more and better parental involvement in children's learning and schools themselves are vital.

If greater involvement is to be achieved for parents, grandparents and carers, plus the artists and practitioners from the cultural sector who can really make a difference to cultural learning, security will need to be addressed in the interest of access and participation. One way of enhancing security in schools is through the inclusion of the community, this engendering a sense of ownership and protection. The development of the Integrated Community Schooling approach has been shown as a potential means of achieving this outcome.

5.5.1 Community schools

The Scottish Executive is moving towards the development of schools as community services hubs, with a view to full implementation in 2007. The Integrated Community School plan will be implemented as part of a long-term school refurbishment programme. A range of professionals including teachers, social workers, health professionals and others are seen as working together in a single team in integrated community schools, with the interests of the individual child at the centre. However, if parents are to be involved in decision making, senior appointments and school life in general, as the draft bill indicates should be the case, then these are also pressing reasons for ensuring that the plans for new build and refurbishment of the schools' estate include the needs of all partners in education.

As an example of what community schools can offer, facilities at Auchterarder Community School are already available for use by the community during the day, evenings and weekends. The school environment is open whilst maintaining an appropriate level of security. Similarly, South Lanarkshire Council has been developing school buildings as focal points for communities, including high quality sports facilities and swimming pools open as leisure centres for the public during the day, with priority access reserved for school classes. Six Children's Services Centres have been created in Dumfries and Galloway providing childcare services including baby-care, wraparound childcare and out-of-school care for 50 weeks of the year. ⁹

The Commission applauds the re-launch of the Parentzone website. We strongly believe that good, frequent, friendly and clear communications between parents and educators are at the heart of the learning partnership. However, parents also need confidence and the encouragement of educators to make communication complete. We recognise that there are special problems with parents whose own school history may be unhappy, who are alone or who live in deprived circumstances. However, if a successful bond between parent, child and educator can be forged, it is likely to become the basis of a happy engagement between parent and the school. Successful learning experiences by the child are central to this relationship.

Also vital is involving parents as partners in helping to create a range of cultural experiences. The Commission supports the work of Communities Scotland in building capacity in parents from deprived areas who may wish to be involved in the local school. Literacy and numeracy problems are also being tackled in ways best suited to the needs of adults who may have been resistant to schooling. Rather then offering orthodox remedial learning, the work done through the Learning Connections programme has carefully assessed barriers to success and created learner-centred activity to enthuse and incentivise adults. We believe there may be value in relating this to the Bookstart programme and making beneficial connections.

The Secretary of State for Education in England has announced plans to spend £680m on schools in England and Wales for the purposes we have been discussing, including breakfast clubs and cultural visits involving parents and volunteers. Each school will receive on average £19,500. A similar scheme in Scotland is needed and at the same rate would cost £77m for its 2,603 schools.

5.5.2 The issue of disclosure

Those who are working in schools must be vetted by Disclosure Scotland. For those working across local authority boundaries this process can become difficult and expensive. Certificates are specific to local authorities and have to be renewed at set intervals. Parents also have to enter the disclosure process if they are assisting regularly. The process, however, can seem confusing and possibly threatening and a better explanation of requirements is needed with the rationale, process and purposes of disclosure communicated to parents regularly. The Commission recommends that, in the context of the draft bill Making a Difference, thought be given to agreements between local authorities about the position of artists asked to pay fees several times for separate authorities. The cost of multiple applications could perhaps be discounted.

5.5.3 Partnership with the cultural sector

We believe that schools need to maintain strategic partnerships with the cultural sectors and the creative industries, and that Cultural Co-ordinators are key to their success. The Commission's recommendations are intended to provide a more consistent approach across Scotland, learning from the successes of the Active Schools Co-ordinators sports programme in bridging the gap between schools and the wider community. Cultural Co-ordinators do not replace educators but act in support and furtherance of their teaching plans. We elaborate this view below.

5.5.4 Continuing Professional Development Courses

In the context of the Curriculum Review, Initial Teacher Education including the Post Graduate Certificate of Education is likely to be re-examined. We believe that education through cultural means should feature prominently in any re-examination. Similarly, assessment of the curriculum using the guidelines and the quality indicators in How Good is Our School? ¹⁰ would benefit from the inclusion of arts and culture and an explicit reference to creativity. A good model already exists in Determined to Succeed, ¹¹ which mirrors and complements the creative and cultural agenda.

Determined to Succeed is the Scottish Executive's strategy for Enterprise in Education. Scottish Ministers have committed £86m over 5 years to deliver the strategy and it is currently being implemented in schools across all 32 local authorities. Through enterprising, entrepreneurial and work based vocational learning, young people (across P1 to P6) will be taught in a way that better encourages creativity, confidence and ambition. We are convinced that this level of investment is also appropriate for education through creativity and to promote creativity.

There is also a critical need for continuing professional development ( CPD) to address this issue and promote best practice. Experienced teachers need support to engage with arts and culture as a means of education and the CPD scheme offers a useful vehicle. Our evidence is that there are many courses for teachers but that the promotion and marketing of courses is poor. We believe that teachers should be encouraged to follow courses for personal development as well as professional advancement and promoting cultural elements in such training may be a factor in broadening their appeal.

Our consultation revealed that many educators were unconfident in the area of Scottish culture and generally unaware of contemporary and traditional Scottish arts. On the other hand, we reviewed much evidence in Scotland of a considerable appetite for Scottish literature, traditional music forms, drama, and new arts from Scottish sources.

We believe that CPD presents a chance for the cultural sector to develop relevant courses in Scottish culture. Such courses need to be well developed and presented, appropriately validated and, above all, well marketed.

5.6 Using and accessing cultural resources

"A generation of young people growing up with access to cultural activities will be a generation with a greater chance of self-fulfilment and success than that of those before them."
Jack McConnell, St Andrew's Day, 2003

5.6.1 Arts across the curriculum

The Scottish Arts Council, in partnership with the Scottish Executive Education Department and seven local authority education departments, is preparing a national arts education research project for Scotland to last three years from August 2005. The project is an innovative approach to teaching, combining the skills of artist and educator to inspire learning and bring the curriculum to life. Artists will use various disciplines, including dance, to help teach maths and history. This scheme is derived from an American model and has a number of aims such as increasing pupils' achievement, understanding and motivation to learn. It is also excellent that there will be support for educators to work collaboratively and creatively and new links between different areas of learning. The erosion of subject barriers will improve the ethos of the school. Participating local authorities are Aberdeen, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian.

At the heart of the scheme is the hope that the outcome will show the efficiency of the expressive arts as a delivery mechanism across the curriculum. The American scheme was initiated to deal with social problems. The Commission recommends that the Scottish scheme be assessed in the context of providing a potential model for the whole cohort of learners and educators.

5.6.2 Identifying creative resources

Resources to support Scottish culture are not currently audited or 'catalogued' in ways that are easily accessed by educators. A good practice model exists in Belgium and we recommend that Learning and Teaching Scotland ( LTS) should carry out similar work to identify and market creative resources.

5.6.3 Developing cultural awareness

A range of opportunities and experiences is a right of all children in school and from the earliest stages of pre-school, cultural appetite and expectation needs to be encouraged and nurtured to build audiences for tomorrow. Many countries in Europe have already recognised the value of boosting cultural awareness of their children and young people. Culture is an integral part of the curriculum in France and the Netherlands and schools are allocated extra funds for cultural activities. Norway and the Netherlands have adopted schemes in primary schools for continuous exposure to a wide range of cultural experiences: Norway's Cultural Rucksack programme was highlighted in Section 4 and the Heritage à la Carte programme is featured below.

In England the government is embarking on a similar scheme, Creative Sparks, to provide all school pupils with early experience in a wide range of arts and cultural activities as an add-on to the school curriculum. This was also noted in Section 4.

Personal digital archive for each child

Children will engage in arts and cultural activity, generating outputs and performances, even in the first stages of primary school. There are instances already in Scotland of children's progress being recorded on DVD. This is presently used as a means of tracking and fostering the development of looked-after children and accommodated children.

We believe this process can be usefully extended to create a cumulative personal digital archive for each child to show key outcomes of personal learning plans. This ought, where possible, to show the best work and achievements in arts and sport and other activities. It could be produced annually and children themselves, perhaps in partnerships with local community groups, can produce much of this in the later stages. Record keeping and archiving are personal and social skills that underpin later higher education and are also the means of securing our historical progress as a society. This approach is consistent with the Executive's development of personal legacy plans.

We believe that an e-archive album pilot project should be funded by the Scottish Executive and should involve LTS, the National Archives and the Scottish Archive Network. We further suggest that Media Access Projects ( MAPS) participate and advise on the contribution that parents, guardians and community media might make.

5.7 Schools of the future

5.7.1 Good quality design

Schools are located in historic buildings and brand new structures. The built environment of the school also includes the layout of playgrounds and parks and the assembly of street furniture that determines where people move around as pedestrians and how cars proceed through the locality. We now understand that children schooled in poor buildings are likely to absorb corresponding messages about the low priority accorded to their education.

The Commission therefore proposes that the schools estate be built with a clear educational vision and to high design standards. Young Scots educated in these schools will have a head start and are likely to be positive about their environment. We believe that the buildings and parklands of the community should be part of the educator's teaching resource. From earliest years children should be helped into an understanding of the environment around them, and this can form the basis of civic responsibility.

A changing shape for the school itself is implicit in the radical thoughts of the Curriculum Review. The Commission is concerned to see that the vital work of rebuilding the schools' estate is predicated on the vision for the curriculum and not distorted by the very real difficulties of procurement and project management. Schools are under-used resources and we understand that the thinking about the configuration of the space in the buildings is in flux as experts consider how learning and the teaching of subjects will change and how space will be used in future by lifelong learners and those using the premises for recreation in all its forms. Readiness of access and price are both limiting factors in the use of school buildings.

Eisner commented that:

"a school's mission is wider than learning how to make a living; it is a place where students can learn how to make a life."¹²
Elliot Eisner

We believe that learning to make a life should happen in a place that creates the best chance of success for the student. Schools may well change their shape and become quite different places but we should be producing accessible and intensively used centres of learning that enhance the learner's world and bring comfort, security and encouragement.

5.7.2 Involving children and educators in the design

The Commission has been impressed with the work of The Lighthouse ¹³ in helping bring together those responsible for building projects with the end-users - educators and pupils. The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland ( RIAS) and the Royal Town Planning Institute ( RTPI) have also contributed clear and far-sighted thinking to the matter of the schools' estate and whether the buildings that we will need in future for learning will be recognisable as what we presently call 'schools'. The question of ownership, planning and management of school buildings by the local community, a German model, was presented by RTPI and it has attractions. The Lighthouse's proposal for a cultural estates 'think and do tank' is contained in Annex F.

RIAS has been active in comparative work and in promoting knowledge to the profession in support of better practice in this area. In a joint action, supported by a number of public and private agencies, a scheme has been created to offer help to local authorities in ensuring best practice as the schools' estate programme rolls out. The Lighthouse is proposed as the focus for brokering ideas and for helping local authorities with the vital initial stages of planning. The Commission recommends that referral to this facility be mandatory for each school building refurbishment or development project.

5.7.3 Bringing arts and culture into schools

We believe that a tremendous opportunity exists to bring arts and culture into schools through artists in residency and visits from performing companies. Scotland's Cultural Co-ordinators scheme has been commended for building up such activity, and should continue to develop links between schools and artists. We have noted examples at home and abroad of largely self-funded agencies that stage performance events in schools, adding a valuable resource for learning and cultural development.

5.8 Cultural learning beyond the classroom

5.8.1 Transport

Availability and cost of transport are both common barriers that inhibit and prevent cultural learning beyond the school. The capital cost of purchasing buses, for use by educators, pupils and the community using schools, is one factor; another is mobility costs, and cultural plans need to recognise and cost those services. Our consultation revealed that a significant factor affecting travel to, and demand for, cultural events is the failure to match up public transport timetables with the finishing times of entertainment.

5.8.2 Digital access to culture

Advances in digital and communications technology offer new opportunities for cultural education. Our recommendations on digitising cultural resources offer new scope for cultural institutions to perform educational outreach activities. One example of how cultural resources can be brought into the classroom as a learning aid is provided by the Global Leap Videoconferencing programme, run by the English Department for Education and Skills ( DfES).

We recommend that this programme should be developed in Scotland, in partnership with DfES, to involve more Scottish schools and cultural institutions. Alternatively, the Scottish Executive could replicate the programme on a national level, linking all schools with all National Institutions, with the primary emphasis on providing access for remote or isolated school communities to national Scottish cultural resources. With the equipment in place, schools could also participate in programmes like Global Leap as a means of developing UK and international horizons for students.

5.8.3 Extending cultural learning

There is considerable demand from parents and children to extend their engagement with learning beyond the formal curriculum. School estate facilities play a significant part in meeting this demand. Providing flexible facilities within schools is key to developing and extending the cultural learning experience. The Out-Of-School-Hours Learning Arts Programmes in South Lanarkshire highlight the important role that is played by school estate facilities. These programmes include weekend and evening workshops for children of different ages covering dance and drama, jazz orchestra, theatre design, rhythm and blues chorus, traditional music group and mini taster courses, a Screen School, a school radio network and a Summer Dance School.

The Cultural Commission is also aware of dedicated Culture Centres for children in Ireland and Sweden that provide opportunities in the community for children to develop skills and participate in cultural productions.

5.9 Secondary education

5.9.1 Ensuring a place for design and culture in the curriculum

The Commission is aware of the complexity of secondary education, not least regarding subject timetables. We acknowledge that secondary education will change as the Curriculum Review process matures and changes are implemented. However, one of the strongest representations made during the consultation was about the need to educate young people about design. This was impressed on us as one of the prerequisites of success in the creative industries and the Commission agrees.

The main aim stated in the Curriculum Review is to create successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors by providing tailored learning to allow young people to develop their individual talents. Implementation of the Review should ensure that there is more time at the heart of the curriculum for art, dance, drama and music to broaden the life experience of young people and these activities will also be used to enhance teaching of other subjects. Teachers will be encouraged to teach creatively and innovatively and will be provided with skills development support to pursue this. The Scottish Executive aims to recruit 400 more specialist PE and art teachers, supplemented by visiting specialists in the arts and culture field. Schools will also be expected to form partnerships with further education and vocational institutes. The Cultural Commission supports all of these outcomes and sees them as vital to the quality of education in Scotland.

5.9.2 Cultural Co-ordinators and Creative Links

The Cultural Commission has been impressed by the value and impact of the Cultural Co-ordinators and Creative Links schemes.

The Cultural Commission places particular emphasis on the importance of formal education as a means of delivering cultural rights and entitlements. It believes that by enhancing the opportunities young people have to be involved in cultural experiences as part of their education from the earliest stages, learning can be significantly enhanced. Achieving such an aim requires better levels of co-ordination and partnership across the education and culture sectors.

Consolidation of the cultural dimension as an integrated aspect of core educational provision will be best achieved by the allocation of funding to a national programme that will also enable local authorities to put in place an infrastructure that supports young people's needs, recognises their entitlement to cultural engagement, enhances their capacity to contribute meaningfully to society, both as individuals and as citizens, and helps contribute towards enhanced levels of achievement in Scottish schools.

The success of sportscotland's Active Schools programme is based on a unitary scheme rolled out to every local authority. With 32 managers and around 630 co-ordinators the scheme cost £3.25m for the original pilot and its extension and £24m to make it a national scheme. Cultural Co-ordinators should be operated on similar levels of scale and funding.

5.9.3 Co-ordinating arts and culture companies

Scotland's arts and culture companies and youth companies should play a major role in providing cultural experiences and opportunities for young people. The Commission suggests that the existing outreach activities of a range of organisations in Scotland could benefit from being co-ordinated and expanded as in the Generation Science programme outlined below. This is a programme designed to build enthusiasm for learning science among school children. Generation Science plays a valuable role in co-ordinating the educational outreach activities of the science sector, acting as a booking agent for a range of scientific institutions, promoting their programmes, taking and scheduling bookings from schools and telling the institutions where and when to take their activities. Such co-ordination is cost-effective for the institutions, generates a small income from fees for Generation Science and is very convenient for educators who can access a one-stop facility for science events. We recommend that a similar, co-ordinated national educational touring programme be adopted for the arts and culture sector.

5.9.4 Broadening cultural experiences

The Curriculum Review states an intention to broaden the life experience of young people through the arts. An overview of international approaches to cultural education shows that many countries seek to provide cultural opportunities for young people, mostly by bringing artists and culture into schools. However, several entitlements-based schemes are operated in Europe giving students the chance to experience cultural events of their choice. Prominent among these is the Dutch Culture Vouchers and French Culture Cheques Schemes. The Cultural Commission is impressed by these schemes, which are aimed at broadening the cultural experiences and appreciation of young people.

If we adopt a very modest aim of offering to each young Scot one experience of the live performing arts and one experience of exhibition culture each year, then we might fund for Scotland's 716,000 pupils and 49,000 teachers, a voucher worth £7.50 to cover admission and transport costs. The total cost of this scheme would be £5.8m per annum.

5.9.5 Being enterprising

We believe that an individual schooled in the arts is a person of greater confidence and therefore of greater competence. The Commission accepts Eisner's contention that arts and cultural education foster and maintain the key competencies for cognitive growth: imagination as a source of content; the ability to make decisions in the absence of rule; perception of relationships; attention to nuance; awareness that problems have multiple solutions and questions multiple answers. ¹⁴ These are the skills needed to achieve the aims of the Scottish Executive's Determined to Succeed initiative ¹⁵ (see case study below). These competencies indicate an agile mind and a competitive individual, the prerequisite of enterprise in a changing economy. These are also the base descriptors of creativity and that is what will underpin the economy of the future. Scotland's economic success in the long term will rest on the creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of its workers.

A number of very successful Determined to Succeed initiatives have been craft based but have focused primarily on opportunities to work with business rather than cultural organisations. The Cultural Commission commends Determined to Succeed and recommends that it be broadened to include cultural enterprises, given the role of culture in developing creativity and innovation. For every five public-private partnerships established between schools and business under the scheme, two should involve cultural enterprise partnerships. Cultural organisations and enterprises and creative industries should be encouraged to participate in offering vocational learning opportunities, and be included in the framework for National Vocational Qualifications. The cultural element should be embedded at all levels of the programme, including teacher training and awareness.

Determined to Succeed

The Determined to Succeed programme is at the centre of the Scottish Executive's strategy for Enterprise in Education. The aim is to give young people in Scotland a better chance of realising their full potential by preparing them for the world of work in private, public and voluntary sectors, and more generally for life. Significantly, a key driver behind the programme is a "need to help all young people become more creative and innovative". The scheme entitles every pupil in primary and secondary school to enterprise activities on an annual basis, and gives pupils aged 14+ the opportunity to learn through work experience and gain vocational qualifications for their achievements. Local authorities have been asked to appoint Enterprise Development Officers in every school cluster.

5.10 Further and higher education

5.10.1 International profile

Scotland's higher education sector is renowned around the world and attracts high quality international students many of whom wish to remain in Scotland and enrich the cultural scene with their presence. In 2003/04, the number of non Scottish UK students at SHEFC funded institutions in Scotland was 26,000 and the number of overseas students was 27,000. ¹⁶ The Commission was also impressed with the ambition of Scottish Universities. For example, both Napier and Edinburgh have permanent presences in Beijing and St Andrews University has a permanent base in Delhi. There are also discussions on how Chinese and Scottish film teaching might work to mutual advantage.

5.10.2 Creativity in universities

Universities are clear about the importance of arts and culture in education and clear also about their own role in making that case: staff in universities quoted research showing that Scottish teenagers are amongst those with the lowest self-confidence in Europe ¹⁷ and they commented in our consultation that this was not surprising at a time when the teaching of art, music, writing, languages, sport and many of the other creative and expressive school subjects is arguably at the weakest. Higher education has a vital role in reversing this trend. The Commission agrees that if Scotland is to build a sustainable and rewarding future, it must build it from creativity.

As well as encouraging creative thinking and creative decision-making in all parts of society, the Commission believes that we must recognise and celebrate the creativity that is inherent in science, engineering and technology. Dialogue between the arts and other disciplines is needed to achieve this. Creativity, so strong in the arts and in higher education, has to be embedded in all activities as the most visionary industry leaders already recognise. In terms of the emerging creative industries, the higher education sector is also leading the way in areas of growing economic importance such as design, journalism, publishing, film and photography. Much of this excellence is through digital media innovation and attracts international investment in the Scottish economy.

5.10.3 Community cultural powerhouses

Higher education institutions ( HEIs) play a significant role in helping Scottish communities meet their cultural, artistic and creative needs, and the importance placed on this role is reinforced by the establishment in a number of institutions of a dedicated office or staff unit for the advancement of their cultural policies. Universities are powerhouses of culture for local communities providing art venues, libraries, museums, arts training opportunities and hosting public cultural events, to cite just a few activities. Student groups in drama, dance, music and a wide range of activities make substantial contributions to a culturally vibrant Scotland. Academic staff are also a major cultural force and university curricula are heavily culturally oriented.

In the field of literature alone, the effects of university initiatives have been profound. Aberdeen University has bought the old Town House to provide a shop window for itself in the middle of the city and has promoted the very successful Word Festival. Edinburgh University was instrumental in helping the city achieve UNESCO designation as City of Literature. St Andrew's University has one of the strongest creative writing teams in Britain for prose and poetry. It also teaches the only professional diploma course in Scotland in museum and gallery studies. Several Scottish universities teach film studies and this activity will be complemented by a new Scottish Centre for film production jointly created by Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art. Dundee University has sustained its valuable prize for a first novel and Napier University, custodian of the heritage of the Craiglockart Spa, has developed its collection of War Poets.

The Commission has been told that there is potential for creative disciplines in HE in Scotland to play a more direct role within their communities, providing access to technical and academic subject-based know how; developing CPD for creative industry and cultural practitioners; using the informal networks developed by staff and students and working with educators to refresh their practice and build their knowledge base. But at present other demands on HEIs mean that opportunities to develop these services are limited. However, we were impressed with the clear vision expounded by University Principals and the energy shown in engaging other communities and countries.

The Commission was also impressed with the potential of FE Colleges to attract young parents into lifelong education. Colleges are, we were told, "within pram-pushing distance" of 80% of the population. The outreach function of colleges is developing rapidly. For example, initiatives taken by the Fife College to market services and to fund a part-time community arts worker have clearly been successful.

The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council ( SHEFC) has recognised the value of cultural activity in universities, and is presently consulting on the most effective way of supporting 'cultural engagement' in higher education institutions. SHEFC have indicated that they wish to create a dedicated funding stream" ¹⁸ to support this.

5.10.4 Knowledge transfer

The knowledge transfer initiative has in the past been marked by short-term actions and consequent reduced efficiency. We were impressed, however, by the proposal from SHEFC to generate more benefit from a new outreach strategy that might take the form of cultural co-ordinators. A cohort of co-ordinator posts would provide continuity and allow universities to plan, review and extend outreach work. The Co-ordinator recommendation is focused on generating benefit from outreach and it will strengthen knowledge transfer commitment, whilst not impacting on the fundamentals of teaching and research. This new idea will need funding of between £0.75m to £1.5m. The Commission supports the proposal.

5.11 Practice-based higher education

The higher education sector provides the crucial building blocks to the cultural and creative industries sectors, providing the talent and skills base through Scotland's graduates and creating vibrant cultural hubs. Scottish graduates in art, design and architecture excel in quality and success: for example Glasgow School of Art's visual communication students won 25% of the Best in Show medals from the D&AD New Blood exhibition, the main UK graphic design, advertising and digital animation student showcase. The international reputation that Glasgow enjoys for the visual arts - said now to rival London and New York - is largely due to the generations of art school graduates who stayed in Glasgow to set up businesses.

5.11.1 Developing relevant cultural skills

The skills taught by practice-based HEIs such as art schools are vital for the future economy. For those who enter different markets after graduation, the skills they acquired in their artistic education stand them in good stead: their creative qualities - independence, confidence, lateral-thinking, problem-solving, innovation, vision and practical skills - give form to their imagination and are key to a knowledge economy. As manufacturing shifts to the Far East, the competitive economy in the West has become reliant on ideas and creativity. Artists can lead the way in pioneering new technologies, approaches and techniques. This has been recognised by Scottish Enterprise.

5.11.2 Cultural career progression

There is no clear career path for artists and designers, with only 65% of graduates in art and design becoming professionals in their field. For architects, however, this figure is 90%. ¹⁹ As one means of addressing this, we believe that there should be closer links between art schools and professional organisations/national companies ( e.g.RSAMD and Scottish Opera, see below). An example from London is the new Chelsea College of Art and Design and neighbouring Tate Gallery in London. The Tate is involved in teaching and development and the Academy provides innovation and vibrancy to the shared public space between the two institutions.

An existing Scottish example is the relationship between Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and the Dundee Centre for Contemporary Art, one of the UK's most successful contemporary arts venues. The Art College runs a Visual Research Centre at the Centre, which is used for R & D purposes by the Schools of Fine Art, Design, Television and Imaging and Architecture. The co-existence of facilities in the building allows for shared expertise and the development of cross-artform activity. Among many benefits, the presence of such a centre is believed to encourage graduates of the College to stay and build careers in Dundee, contributing to the cultural and economic life of the city.

5.11.3 Preparing for enterprise

Practice-based HEIs have a duty to provide students with the opportunity to experience business. Not only will this instil confidence, but students will also acquire skills from mentoring, networking and communication experience. Some successful examples were discussed in our consultation, for example, Glasgow School of Art ( GSA) has built business experience into its courses. Dundee University provides studio space to professional artists. The artists benefit from having business facilities to hand, while the students can be inspired and mentored by the professionals. The artist-led Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh is involved in teaching business skills and mentoring students at the Edinburgh College of Art, through its presentation of a Professional Practice Course. In return for its educational and mentoring services to Edinburgh College of Art, the Gallery receives some funding towards its core costs.

5.11.4 Protecting creativity

We believe it is important that courses related to art, music and writing as well as the creative, scientific or technical industries should include a module on intellectual property so that students know how to protect the copyright and integrity of their work. The Commission commends the work of the Arts and Humanities Research Council ( AHRC) Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Edinburgh University to develop and communicate an understanding of how intellectual property law relates to new technologies. The Centre is the only significant academic research agency covering both IPR and technology law in Scotland and has a valuable role to play.

5.11.5 Research and development

Scotland's HEIs perform a vital research and development function. The staff at HEIs across Scotland provide access to professional cultural and creative industries networks for students and graduates, as well as contributing directly to the sectors through their own activity. University research stimulates innovation and development through developing new businesses, new processes, new approaches and challenging the status quo.

5.11.6 Undergraduate and postgraduate provision in the cultural sector - a funding gap

Despite the fact that creative industries are now recognised by the Scottish Executive as a significant economic sector with the highest growth potential over the next ten years, the creative disciplines in higher education struggle to achieve an even playing field with science and technology subjects. Resources for art, design and architecture are very low in comparison to science and technology subjects and fail to meet the full costs of quality art and design education. When compared with England, Scotland also has a lower number of undergraduate art college places.

The art, design and architecture sectors in Scottish higher education are being left behind in terms of the capacity to increase undergraduate and postgraduate provision. Postgraduate qualifications are increasingly becoming the currency for many employers in the creative industries and a Masters in Fine Art from GSA or another HEI with an international reputation is now increasingly influential in getting a good start to a fine art career. Postgraduate provision is the area of greatest demand from overseas students. According to the sector, the lack of funded places available for postgraduates is a major barrier to postgraduate development. In art and design, for example, there are only 92 funded places for postgraduate study in art and design in Scotland compared with 1,150 postgraduate funded places available to computer science (which has equivalent undergraduate numbers to art and design).

5.12 Aligning educational policy

As cultural reforms are implemented over the longer period, with government setting new standards and implementing rights, it is important that we ensure the alignment and continuity of public policy. Apparent anomalies need to be addressed. The birth of the National Theatre of Scotland has coincided with the apparently inadvertent creation of a differential in the funding of places for drama teachers in England and Scotland. The Commission recommends that this situation be remedied as soon as possible.

If we are to ensure the practice of the visual arts at the highest level in Scotland, as seems appropriate for a nation striving to place culture centre-stage, we believe there must be an increase in the funding for research places in our schools of art. In general, the number of undergraduate and research places in the arts is disproportionately low in comparison to other subjects and we believe that should be remedied. Increased investment is also required to sustain study to degree level and beyond in dance. It is only in the last three years that it has been possible for students to study to this level in Scotland. This is a significant development, but the standards of teaching and aspiration for students graduating from these courses, in Edinburgh and Dundee, need to be heightened with greater opportunities to pursue a professional and viable career in dance in Scotland.

Similarly, students graduating from the Opera School of the Scottish Conservatoire should be able to benefit from agreements between the RSAMD and Scottish Opera that ensure the career progression of the most talented into professional positions, retaining them in Scotland.

5.13 Lifelong and adult learning

Among many sections of the population there is a perception that creativity and the arts is associated with childhood and school. However, as this report demonstrates, culture provides a powerful tool for both personal and community development. As noted in Section 3, Scotland's demographic trends are creating an older population and in the long term in may be necessary to expand the current provision of continuing, adult and lifelong learning education, as well as targeting cultural activity to a more mature audience. The logic of a more cultural curriculum will mean a more culturally aware generation of school leavers who will demand continuing engagement with culture throughout their lives.

Research conducted by the Commission into the voluntary cultural sector in Scotland suggested that the three prime motivators are enjoyment, pursuing an interest and social engagement, followed by broadening of cultural knowledge and to learn new skills. ²⁰ If Scotland is to increase the involvement of the adult population we must look to appeal to people at this level and move beyond the current focus of 'learning for earning'. The voluntary sector is best placed to increase participation and this kind of informal learning for adults and the recommendations the Commission makes relating to this sector should help improve the opportunities for life-long informal learning.

However there is another important level of life-long education. Up to 800,000 adults appear to have very low literacy and numeracy skills. ²¹ A serious underlying problem is that of 'invisibility' where large numbers of this group rate their skills as stronger than they are. As we saw in Section 2, cultural activity may be particularly well placed to address such issues as it does not come fettered with the preconceptions of formalised education and can appeal to people on a level of fun and enjoyment.

Communities Scotland's Community Learning and Development programme's main aim is to help individuals and communities tackle real issues in their lives through community action and community-based learning. This programme may be a strong partner within local authority community planning groups delivering cultural services. The potential synergies deserve to be investigated. The Equal Access Iniative that examines multiple barriers to success is also the sort of tool that such planning groups will find invaluable. We believe that cultural resources should be part of the solutions developed by community planning groups.

5.14 Recommendations

The Commission recommends:

1) That learning in and through the arts be given a higher profile in the implementation of the Curriculum Review, any re-examination of Initial Teacher Education and in the development of Quality Improvement Frameworks in schools.

2) That cultural activity be recognised and adopted as the key methodology for all children and young people aged 3 to 18 years and that priority be given to early learning from 3 to 8 years.

3) That entitlement schemes such as Culture Vouchers or Cheques should be piloted by the Scottish Executive.

4) A national conference on transport, young people and the cultural sector should be established.

5) A permanent and nationally consistent Cultural Co-ordinators scheme, akin to the sports co-ordinators programme Active Schools, with responsibility for
co-ordinating delivery of cultural entitlements, both strategically and operationally be established.

6) That quality standards, monitoring, and evaluation of cultural projects are developed as a reference point for cultural co-ordinators.

7) That Learning and Teaching Scotland and the National Archives of Scotland pilot a programme to produce an e-archive album for each child, and to pilot individual workspaces on the internet.

8) Full funding for the Bookstart programme and its proposed extensions.

9) The funding of the visioning and design process as proposed by The Lighthouse for every school building and refurbishment project. See annex F for details.

10) That the Creative Links scheme be maintained and extended.

11) That a national strategy for educational materials, visits and experiences supported by companies and institutions across Scotland and co-ordinated by Learning and Teaching Scotland be developed.

12) Determined to Succeed be broadened to include cultural enterprise.

13) Support for the draft Bill on improved parental involvement in schools.

14) A review to consider improvements in community and parent access to schools, while taking into account school security and the impacts of the Disclosure Scotland scheme on cultural workers.

15) That Arts & Business Scotland broker new relationships between parents' groups, cultural partners and potential business sponsors.

16) Support for the proposal from SHEFC to generate community benefit from a new outreach strategy that might take the form of cultural co-ordinators.

17) An audit of the CPD short courses open to teachers under the revised conditions of service and thereafter the creation of a market supported by a national system for promoting these courses.

18) Support for enhanced capacity for RSAMD and strategic planning between RSAMD and the national performing companies.

19) Support for the creative industries initiative in the University of St Andrews.

20) That the differential in the funding of places for drama teachers in England and Scotland be rectified.

21) That there should be an increase in the funding for undergraduate and research places in Scottish schools of art.

22) That courses in Scottish HE and FE that relate to art, music, the performing arts and writing as well as the creative, scientific or technical industries should include a module on intellectual property.

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