Teaching union demands end to ‘insidious practice’ of grading Scottish schools

Teaching unions are demanding that Scotland’s school inspection regime be watered down under a shake-up of how classroom standards are assessed.

The EIS claimed that schools should no longer be graded by inspectors, under a system which is designed to offer transparency to parents about how they are performing.

Currently, Scottish schools are assessed on a six-point scale, from unsatisfactory to excellent, in three areas.

‘Culture change’

Under legislation published on Thursday, a new independent schools inspectorate is to be established, taking over the function from the government agency Education Scotland.

Andrea Bradley, the general secretary of the EIS, said that the reforms should be accompanied by a “culture change” in which the inspection system, which is already seen as less rigorous than in England, is made less adversarial.

She said: “We need to see a departure from top-down accountability approaches, which stifle collaborative practice and drive unnecessary stress, and move towards a model of practitioner-led evaluation, with time invested to facilitate a more collegiate approach and peer review.

“A practical first step would be to put an end to the insidious practice of labelling schools through grading processes.”

Major scandals

The legislation will also see the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the exams body which was hit with major scandals over grading during the pandemic, replaced with a new body called Qualifications Scotland.

However, the body, which is expected to be in operation by autumn next year, is to have the same chair, Shirley Rogers, a former Scottish Government civil servant.

Jenny Gilruth, the SNP education secretary, said the changes would “drive improvement right across the education system.”

Scotland has recently plummeted down international education league tables. Performance among 15-year-olds has declined across reading, maths and science, according to research comparing education systems.

Ms Gilruth said: “Greater independence for the new inspectorate body will see the power to set the frequency and focus for inspections moving from Scottish ministers to His Majesty’s Chief Inspector.

“This is a significant change and will increase confidence in the independent role of inspections in assessing and identifying strengths and areas for improvement across our education system.”