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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 17 March 2025
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Displaying 1250 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has produced excellent advice and guidance on how schools should manage their school meals debt. Will local authorities that have not adopted that guidance—I think that there is quite a high overlap between authorities that have not written off the debt and those that have not adopted the guidance—be encouraged or even required to do so by the Government in order to access the money that you are making available?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

Yes—he had printed out his spreadsheet and brought it with him. However, I cannot remember his name—sorry.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

This is not a supplementary, convener. For the sake of the Official Report, I have found the name that I was looking for. It was Professor Jim Scott, from the University of Dundee, who gave the evidence that the cabinet secretary and I heard in the previous parliamentary session. He found that just over half of schools in Scotland were offering six courses in S4, that about a third were offering seven, that about one in 11 were offering eight and that three or four—presumably those doing a two-year higher—were offering five.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

Learner voice, as well as teacher voice, is really important. There are other perspectives, such as those of parents and carers, that would also be valuable additions.

Cabinet secretary, you made a point about the model of staff secondment that Education Scotland used to use but has moved away from more recently. Do you see opportunities for that not only in the reformed Education Scotland but in the new qualifications body or in the inspectorate? There is not enough grit in the system at the moment. One criticism of the current inspection system is that many of those who inspect schools, professional as they are, have not themselves been in the classroom for quite some time. Is there a role for the secondment of classroom teachers, so that people who are constantly involved in our national education bodies have direct, personal and recent experience of the classroom?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

You have pre-empted my final question, which was going to be about exactly that point. A teacher should not have to be an SQA marker to truly understand the grading system, but we have heard a lot of feedback about that and you have made exactly that point.

Convener, given the time, I am happy to finish there.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

In that case, the calculation is almost entirely a reflection of the in-year savings from this year. There is a marginal additional amount.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

Can you clarify where those demand-led changes came from? I recognise that you said that the Deputy First Minister published the related budget lines in November. I cannot remember the detail of everything from that point onwards, so could you give us a bit more detail on how much of that came from demand on student support programmes versus tuition fee payments?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

That is okay, convener. I will come back in with a supplementary question.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

Did you mean the theme of school meals debt?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 and Education Reform

Meeting date: 17 January 2024

Ross Greer

I apologise to Pam for jumping in.

Cabinet secretary, can you clarify what you were saying? Are you saying that local authorities that have already wiped out their school meals debt will not be able to access the new fund that has been announced, and that that fund is purely for the authorities that have not yet taken that action? Is that correct?