Education debate degenerates into mudslinging at Highland Council after a Labour-Conservative bid to improve information gathering
Moves aimed at improving education across the region were rejected after receiving a hostile reaction at Highland Council headquarters.
Ideas put forward by Inverness Central’s Labour councillor Michael Gregson, a former teacher with 35 years’ of experience, aimed to address a number of concerns.
His motion wanted to look at: the removal of principal teacher posts from many primary schools; a substandard school estate; poor attendance levels and inadequate provision for children with special educational and support needs.
It also sought to address the “disappointing senior phase attainment”; prevailing job insecurity for teachers and assistants; a “failure” to recruit and retain staff at all levels in all localities; inadequate support for newly qualified teachers and the ‘no school exclusions’ policy.
The bid received some cross-party support, including from Conservatives, and recognised “officials and school staff are working at a challenging time” but it also sought “thorough and clear reporting” on several key issues.
It led to a fiery debate with the council’s education chairman John Finlayson (Highland Independent) blowing up at his Skye ward colleague Ruraidh Stewart (Tory) for “heckling” at one point, asking him: “What is your problem, mate?”
Cllr Stewart’s “problem” was made clear earlier in the debate when he lambasted the local authority for what he sees as “the systemic failure of leadership” among the SNP-Highland Independent administration.
On Friday, we revealed that Scottish Government figures showed that attainment in the curriculum for excellence (ACEL) across the Highlands has just once since 2016 matched the national average.
The results for 2023/24 show that in P1, P4 and P7 for reading, the region is currently the second lowest in Scotland; for writing, it is the lowest; for listening and talking, it is fifth lowest; it ranked second lowest for literacy and it was lowest for numeracy.
Before appearing to lose his temper, Cllr Finlayson rubbished the motion, stating: “It is important to look at some of the ‘asks’ in the motion because some are vague and show a lack of knowledge, which is really surprising.”
He said “substandard schools” would be replaced through the Highland Investment Plan and additional support needs (ASN) funding rose by £5 million since 2019/20.
On attainment, he admitted that “nationally that is not what we would have expected” but in all but two measures “observed a decline” but the north “stayed the same in five of the 16 measures”.
But Cllr Finalyson’s statements are also open to question. The investment plan does not have funding yet and will take years to deliver new schools. More investment in ASN may not deliver more support. Attainment may be improving but it still lags behind the rest of the country.
SNP councillor Liz Kraft (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh) said: “It came across as a list of negative, unsubstantiated, random statements showing a complete lack of understanding of the work and improvement streams under way and the work we do at committee.”
Except that the Highlands does have by far the worst school estate in the country - a fact acknowledged by the SNP’s council leader Raymond Bremner (Wick and East Caithness) just over a year ago in a letter to the SNP’s education secretary Jenny Gilruth.
Another Skye councillor, Drew Millar (SNP), said he was “astonished” how Cllr Gregson managed to “coerce” any support for “such a ridiculous motion”.
Lib Dem opposition leader Alasdair Christie (Inverness Ness-side) hit out at that “mindless” response, describing it as an absolute disgrace when it had been put forward by a “respected teacher of the Inverness community”. Arguing for the motion, he said: “It is not political, it is common sense.
“If someone wants to pull back this carpet, then I am sure the administration could sweep everything under it because that is what they want to do with this.
“Let’s pick one of these ‘disappointing senior phase attainment’ [measures], that means our young people are at a disadvantage compared to every other young person in Scotland when applying to university.
“And if it doesn’t John [Finlayson], perhaps you could say at the end why it doesn’t mean that?”
Cllr Finlayson did not take up the suggestion, instead stressing results were improving but any relation to the national average was not mentioned.
He said: “Some people want to look at the ACEL data and only find bad news. Well, I am going to tell you some good news: we can claim to be the second most improved local authority in Scotland post-Covid and that we are over double the rate of improvement to Scotland as a whole.
“We continue to be within the most improved local authorities for literacy, the improvement in literacy over the last two years equates to 10 per cent and is now 12 per cent above pre-Covid figures.”
The motion was refused by 26-41, with one abstention.
