Thursday, April 22, 2010

87% of teachers lack confidence to deliver new school curriculum, SNP Government need to bite the bullet and delay introduction




















Dear All

A joint survey by the Government and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) has thrown up a serious problem regarding the Curriculum for Excellence.

87% of teachers lack the confidence to deliver the Curriculum for Excellence starting in August.

SNP Minister Michael Russell says said he believes schools are ready to deliver the curriculum and thinks the 10-point plan to help with its introduction is the solution.

The big three for the electorate are health, education and jobs.

Therefore it is important to get it right, having spoken to teachers myself; the Curriculum for Excellence should be postponed for another year and this would allow for the bugs to be resolved.

If the SNP Government blindly shunts this through and it goes awry they will have no one to blame but themselves.

87% of teachers lacking confidence, this is no small number!

The 10 point plan is badly resourced, £3 million to help train staff for the whole of Scotland.

Is that a joke?

On top of that there is the time factor, there isn’t enough of it.

Make do, won’t do!

So, stats stuff;

89% said they needed more subject resources to implement the curriculum

70% said they had not been adequately consulted on timetabling

84% said the current level of training was inadequate.

72% disagreed with the statement that communication from local authorities, the Government, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and curriculum body Learning and Teaching Scotland had been supportive and effective.

It is summed up by one teacher;

“This is the most poorly thought out curricular development in the 30 years I have been teaching”.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the SSTA said;

“Secondary teachers are fully behind the principles of the new curriculum, but are angry and concerned at the lack of preparation and the failure to listen to their views.”

She added;

“The major concern is the missing elements, particularly the lack of information and resources, which delay action and sabotage attempts to develop appropriate courses for Scottish secondary pupils. The future of our pupils is far too important to risk implementing an under-developed and partially prepared curriculum model.”

There is an old adage, better safe than sorry.

And the safe option is delay the introduction, get the concerns addressed and provide the time and funding to ensure the model functions.

This is what listening government should do.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

No comments: