Seòmar agus comataidhean

I suspect that it is subject to negotiations, so you will probably not want to answer but, in the interests of giving confidence to providers or charitable organisations, if an insurance company was not contributing to payments and that threatened the viability of an otherwise good organisation, would your system be able to flex to reflect the fact that the insurer was not paying?

Are you delivering the promise?

We have heard evidence from others who mentioned the survey of literacy and numeracy that used to take place. It was not perfect and could have been improved, but that type of survey or census approach is better than the use of data, including the use of the results of the SNSAs as part of the framework, to assess the performance of schools and individuals. We are not doing it the right way: we should return to a survey approach. Why will you not consider that so that we can stop having crude league tables that demoralise schools and pupils?

Do not misunderstand me: I am in favour of data, but I am not in favour of making available individual data on schools that can be turned into league tables. I understand that you do not produce the league tables, but newspapers have done so, and they can do so only because you publish the data. Why do you not produce surveys, which would be a far superior system? I just do not understand why you continue with the policy when it has been criticised widely by a number of people.

What evidence have you gathered to justify the inclusion of children’s services in the national care service?

You provide the data.

The OECD was clear. Even though it was not in the headline recommendations, the text underneath those headline recommendations had some significant criticism of your current data collection process. Do you accept that recommendation?

Do you accept that it appears like it is an afterthought? It was not included in the Feeley report and there was no children’s equivalent of the Feeley report. Fiona Duncan from The Promise Scotland has expressed what I would classify as real concern. Is it an afterthought or have you gathered evidence on it?

Baselining that funding for the additional teachers will help, but I hope that you will also look at the funding for PEF. It is allocated on an annual basis, which has an impact on the temporary arrangements that are available to schools.

On the Scottish national standardised assessments, I note that, on page 128 of its report, the OECD stated that

“the purpose and usefulness of these are already being questioned.”

It also told us that its team did not consider the SNSA

“to be the most appropriate system monitoring mechanism”.—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 8 September 2021; c 19.]

Are you therefore going to stop collecting assessment data across the country?

Schools have used formative assessments for generations. I understand that. My issue is that you collect the results and produce a national report that now leads to the publication of crude league tables. A school in the First Minister’s constituency was highlighted as apparently being one of the worst-performing schools in the country. I do not believe that for a minute: I believe that that school is probably performing well, but that because of its demographics and background, it is assessed as being one of the worst schools. That cannot be good for the Scottish education system.

If you stopped collecting that data nationally and using it for monitoring purposes, but allowed teachers to continue using it locally, that would be the best of all worlds. Why do you not stop collecting that information?