Scottish schools can be the best in the world

19 August 2017 

We think Scottish schools can be the best in the world. Here's our plan to do it.

• Use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to stop the cuts and invest in education

• An independent review of teachers’ pay, conditions and career structure to re-establish the profession as world leading, and attract new teachers to it.

• A commitment to urgently commission the design of a systematic focused literacy and numeracy programme as recommended by the government’s international advisers.

• Halt the centralisation of schools through regional directors and maintain local budgeting.

• Re-establish an independent inspectorate and immediately task the Chief Inspector with producing an improvement plan for curriculum for excellence, from primary one to sixth year of high school.

• An expert group to plan reform of the senior phase of school, increasing vocational strands for example through skills academies and Further Education partnerships.

• Introduce a Scottish Graduation Certificate for all at 18, reflecting achievement in exam, vocational, work experience and voluntary learning.

• Bursaries for teacher training in shortage subjects, beginning with Mathematics and Physics.

• Establish a Breakfast club in every school.

• Establish a Homelink worker and mental health counsellor in every secondary school cluster.

• End charging for exam appeals.

This week, our summer campaign 'For The Many' has been focused on education as the schools go back. Find out more about the campaign by clicking the image below: