Western Isles SNP group education spokesman, Councillor John Mitchell commented:
I am somewhat encouraged by this new initiative as - for most of my 42 years in education- I believed that the ever-increasing number of " suits " - the so-called experts in education - did little to improve the overall standard of education. I have always believed that real improvement in education standards are only possible from the bottom up - not from the top down which, unfortunately, has been the norm.
Accountability inevitably moves downwards as well and there will be even greater responsibility and pressure placed upon the Senior Management Team in each School as well as the workers at the " chalk face " - sorry " white board ".
Having said all that there are a number of other complex factors which will contrive to drive down standards of education - not the least of which is the year on year reduction in real terms of the financial support from Westminster via Holyrood which inevitably impacts on Staffing / class sizes and available resources all of which are no supporters of raising attainment levels. Maybe a shift in priorities when we become an independent country will help to alleviate this challenge ! Also there are society pressures - not the least of which is the move away from personal and interactive communication as more of our youngsters stare at a largely non-interactive screen for large chunks of the day. Not so easy to see a solution to that one.
For all that - I do believe that John Swinney's recent pronouncements are a step in the right direction.
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