A step up from the right

When it comes to overall attainment in Scotland’s schools, the figures have shown little movement in recent years, while the gap in attainment based on pupils’ economic background has been a stubborn one to shift. Work by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown a direct correlation between poverty and weaker academic attainment. 

It is perhaps surprising that the MSP who has been most vocal on the subject recently has been a Conservative. Elizabeth Smith led a debate which called for a rethink of Scotland’s comprehensive school system as a way of tackling the persistent gap in attainment.

Educated at an independent school, George Watson’s in Edinburgh, Smith says she was aware of many fellow pupils from poorer backgrounds who had been offered assisted places. It is was integral to the ethos of the school, she says, and still is. “Anybody who goes to Watson’s will know that’s what the set-up is. I don’t think anybody was bothered about it. Watson’s is a school, like many independent schools, which prides itself on being a relatively diverse community.”

As an adult, Smith ended up teaching at the same school, but had an eye on a political career. “I’ve always been quite political. My parents were political too and were also teachers. My father was a headmaster. I’ve always had a mixture of politics and education in my blood, but what interested me in my teaching career, particularly when teaching the senior age groups, is what drives young people in terms of how they develop their ideas, what makes them think.” 

As a teacher, she was aware of the then Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth flagging up statistics on the attainment gap in Scotland. Although the statistics have changed, the gap is still there, she says. “Since this parliament started in 1999, the actual amount of money spent on education has actually doubled. And yet there isn’t the improvement you would like to see in the attainment gap. You have to ask questions as to why that is because if we are spending more money, why is it we’re not doing something to solve this?”

For Smith, this is an indication of a systemic problem, and she believes educationalists like Curriculum for Excellence commentator Keir Bloomer, Professor Lindsay Paterson and Professor Pete Downes, convener of Universities Scotland, have suggested they agree. Although Forsyth’s projected reforms in the 1990s were dismissed in Scotland for being too right wing, Smith argues they are still relevant today. Indeed, she gently teased the outgoing Education Secretary Michael Russell in the chamber for coming up with ideas in his 2006 book, Grasping the Thistle, which could have been in the Conservative manifesto. “To be fair to Mike Russell, I think he genuinely understands the problem, but the solutions he had recently as Education Secretary don’t quite seem to be the ones he was suggesting when he wrote Grasping the Thistle. Mike’s an intelligent man and it was interesting what he had said before. I think deep down he believes some of that stuff, actually.”

One established Conservative policy Smith is less enthusiastic about is league tables. Although she dismisses Russell’s statement the country has no failing schools, she says schools must be measured against their own record. “It’s not fair to compare some schools like against like when they have very different structures, very different pupil intake. But where I think we should be stricter about inspections and things is about how much progress have they really made over a long period of time.”

If all young people are not getting a chance, reform should be evidence-based and should include greater autonomy for teachers and parents to make decisions, says Smith. However, parents from lower income groups tend to be less engaged with school leadership than others, even when they are given the opportunity. How would this reduce the attainment gap?

“You’ve got to be careful, because not all parents want to engage to a policy level, of course they don’t,” says Smith, pointing to reviews which have suggested a shake-up of school management systems. “We’ve got to get a system of school management which is much more responsive to the needs of the children and also more responsive to the demands of parents. For those in our most disadvantaged schools, there’s a whole combination of things we need to do. One of them is not to pretend one size fits all works. The comprehensive system has well outlived its usefulness and I think there’s a mistaken belief that uniformity is the same as equality. I don’t believe that. Different needs require different teaching and different care.”

With a polarisation of geographic areas in the bigger cities, as more wealthy parents purchase houses in the catchment areas of high-attaining schools, isn’t the comprehensive system in demise already?

“That’s true but the problem is the choice of where you go to school is still decided by a catchment. That’s wrong. Postcodes should not be determining where you go to school. Every area should have a good school and it shouldn’t matter what your postcode is,” says Smith. 

A greater focus on literacy and numeracy is needed, suggests Smith, particularly in the early years. “We’ve got some councils in Scotland, like Clackmannanshire, West Dunbartonshire, where they’ve been using tried and tested methods of spelling first used in the sixties, but it works, and their results show it works.” It should be an approach drummed in from day one in Primary One, she argues. “If I can have anything I can achieve in my political career, I really believe the greatest gift we can give to children is literacy and numeracy. To all children. It shouldn’t matter what your background is, we should give them all the chance with literacy and numeracy. It opens the door to so many other things.”

Whole schools should be leading in raising standards, says Smith, and helping children who have the biggest challenges. Isn’t this difficult when council budgets are so tightened they are already losing school support staff across Scotland?

“It’s not all about spending money. Of course everybody would like a bit more money, and there is a need for local authorities to try to focus their spending in the areas which need most attention, but I don’t think we should just make an excuse money will solve that, because as I said earlier, the Scottish Parliament has spent an awful lot more money but it hasn’t led to better results.”

Recently parents groups, worried about proposed cuts to education services in local budgets, suggested councils should share services, or even the centralisation of education services altogether. Does Smith agree? “I am talking about being more radical because what I’m interested in is an education system built on what works, and to be quite honest, I don’t think that is necessarily a debate between the public and the private sector, or between local authorities. Parents have a right to expect good schools and we need to build these good schools in every area.”

Because councils are focused on a one-size-fits-all approach, she says, it becomes a top-down service with no input from pupils or parents. Competition, which she acknowledges is a word people might expect from “just a Tory”, is crucial to driving up diversity and standards. 

“The world is competitive. I firmly believe there’s a place for every child in being channelled into the area where their talents, and every child has talents, work best. I don’t think we’re very good at that just now. That’s why I’m excited by what [businessman, Sir] Ian Wood is proposing just now. He’s got some really interesting ideas. His ideas are to create greater flexibility. It’s most encouraging.”

Poverty, however, remains the greatest detriment to attainment and much of what holds pupils back from attainment they bring into school. Can we really expect the schools to pick up the pieces on their own?  “I think they do the most wonderful job in many cases. But that’s why the early years are crucial. Giving them the best possible start in the earliest years is essential and you have to make that flexible so more parents can take advantage of that,” says Smith. Universal school meals, she argues, are a waste of resource because they don’t target the areas of most need. Evidence has shown breakfast clubs are better for attainment because many children from deprived backgrounds come to school on an empty stomach and Smith advocates this approach.

But isn’t universal free school meals a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition policy? “It is. I disagree with it. In theory, it’s very nice to have free school meals if we can afford it. But when local authorities are facing really difficult decisions about how they spend their money, I believe you should focus on the greatest need.”

In the thick of the inequality debate there has been a call for private schools, like George Watson’s, where Smith studied, taught and now is a governor, to be stripped of their charitable status. A petition heard by parliament argues they are elitist institutions which reduce social mobility, not encourage it.

Apart from the founding ethos of some schools such as Watson’s being “built on educating orphans”, she says, “if you take charitable status away, I would reckon quite a sizable proportion of current students at these schools would no longer be able to go there, and so the state sector schools would have to pay. I would think at least 10,000 would need to go.”