INCA Education around the world
Scotland : Organisation/control of education system
2.1 Organisation and control of system/structure
2.1.1 Control
Although the Scottish Government plays an important role in the administration of Scottish education, many executive powers for school education are devolved to local authorities and, increasingly, to schools themselves. 2
National level
The First Minister for Scotland is responsible for the overall supervision and development of the education system. Day-to-day responsibility for education is delegated to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning who is supported by two Ministers - the Minister for Children and Early Years and the Minister for Schools and Skills. They are served by the Scottish Government Directorate General Education. Ministers are advised by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) and the national bodies dealing with the development of the curriculum (Learning and Teaching Scotland, LTS) and public examinations (the Scottish Qualifications Authority, SQA). 96
The Scottish Government Schools Directorate (SGSD), which has five sub-divisions: Schools; Teachers; Curriculum; Support for Learning; and Qualifications, Assessment and Skills) aims to promote a high quality education service in schools. It administers government policy for school education in cooperation with local authorities, which are responsible for providing school education in their areas. SGSD gives guidance on the content of education and on the key elements in teacher training courses, and seeks to match the supply of teachers to demand. 96
SGSD funds Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), a non-departmental public body which was created in 2000 from the merger of the Scottish Council for Educational Technology (SCET) with the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum (SCCC). LTS is responsible for providing advice, support, resources and staff development to enhance the quality of educational experience and improve pupil and student attainment. 96
SGSD co-ordinates the activities of local authorities and other bodies with an interest in education and issues guidance on such matters as curricula and teaching methods. Capital expenditure on new buildings, equipment or modernisation projects is financed by local authorities within broad limits laid down by government. These limits are determined by formula and relate to all local authority capital programmes, with no specific allocation for schools.96
Education Quality and Improvement Agency
The Cabinet Secretary for Education has announced that a new agency is to be established that that will inherit the functions currently being undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) and Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). This new agency will be key in supporting quality and improvement in Scottish Education by:
- leading and supporting the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence
- increasing the capacity for self-evaluation and self-improvement amongst education providers and practitioners
- promoting high quality professional learning and leadership
- identifying and stimulating innovation, sharing successful approaches widely with others
- providing independent external evaluations of the quality of educational provision at individual provider, local authority and partners, and national levels
- supporting the development and implementation of policy at National Level
The new agency will take effect from July 2011. Further information is available online.
Local level
There are 32 local authorities in Scotland which have direct responsibility for the provision of schools, the employment of educational staff, the provision and financing of most educational services, and the implementation of Scottish Government policies in education.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to:
Provide adequate and efficient school education. Make provision for additional support needs (ASN). Provide the teaching of Gaelic in schools in Gaelic-speaking areas. 2
In addition, they are required to make provisions for students who are excluded from, or cannot attend school. They also have a duty to provide adequate facilities for recreational and sporting activities, and are responsible for the construction of buildings, the employment of teachers and other school staff, and the provision of equipment and teaching materials. They exercise responsibility for the curriculum taught in schools, taking account of national guidance. 2
School Boards
One further local body, the School Board, has a role in the provision of public education. The School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988 gave every publicly funded school in Scotland the opportunity of forming a School Board consisting of elected parent and staff members and members co-opted from the local community. The majority of members must be parents of children at the school. 2 30
School Boards provide an effective input of parents' views on the provision of school education at the level of the individual school. They have wide powers to ask for information about their own school and about other schools in the local education authority area. These powers include the right to receive and comment upon detailed statements concerning the school's finances. The Education (Scotland) Act 1996 and the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 made some changes in the rules governing the organisation of School Boards. The latter Act also set out that School Boards should exercise their functions with a view to raising the standard of education at the school. 2 9 6
School Boards operate in over 80 per cent of state (publicly-funded) primary schools, over 95 per cent of secondary schools and over 50 per cent of special schools. 2
2.1.2 Funding
The Scottish Government supports school education and community learning and development as an element in the grant which it pays annually to local authorities. The actual amount allocated by local authorities to education is their own responsibility. Day-to-day responsibility for spending is delegated to a considerable extent to schools themselves. 2
Education is the most expensive service provided by local authorities, absorbing just over half of their annual expenditure. Along with most other local services, the cost of education services is met from resources raised by the Council Tax (a tax related to tenancy and to the ownership and value of private property), non-domestic rates (a tax on business premises) and the annual grant from the Scottish Government. Once the education budget is agreed, the education committee in each local authority then decides on the level of support to be given to its schools. Thereafter, the authority's education department is responsible for implementing the education committee's policies and ensuring that the money allocated under the approved budget headings is spent appropriately. Individual schools are responsible for the day-to-day management of their own budgets. 2
Capital expenditure on new buildings, modernisation projects and equipment is financed by local authorities within broad capital expenditure limits laid down annually by government. These limits cover all local authority capital programmes. 2
2.1.3 Private sector education
The law permits individuals and bodies to provide education outside the public education authority system, with certain provisos. In the case of groups of fewer than five children of school age, those offering education must prove to the satisfaction of the education authority that they are providing satisfactory education. In cases of five or more children of school age, the school must be registered with the Scottish Government and is subject to inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, before final registration is granted. Her Majesty's Inspectors have to be satisfied that premises conform to certain basic accommodation standards, that owners are 'fit and proper persons' to run such an establishment and that the teachers are similarly acceptable. The Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 requires prospective managers of any new private school to apply for provisional registration before the school becomes operational, and gives Scottish Ministers wide powers to refuse provisional registration.2
Private schools in Scotland are normally referred to as independent schools. Only a very small proportion of children and young people in Scotland (approximately four per cent) attend such schools. Parents pay fees for the attendance of their children at these schools. 2
Independent schools vary enormously in size, ranging from fewer than 20 to over 2,000 students. Some offer a complete education from pre-school age to 18; others are for primary age or secondary age children only. Independent schools have some freedom in the number of days on which they have to open in the year. There is also no legal requirement for an independent school to follow a particular teaching programme. In some, courses bear close resemblance to those offered in education authority schools; others are modelled on private schools in England and aim to prepare students either to enter the English independent school system or to take English examinations. A number also have a very strong religious orientation. Another is a specialist music school. Most of the larger independent schools are members of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) in which they can come together to discuss matters of common interest and to organise training for their staff and governing bodies. 2
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, inspects independent schools in the same way as local authority schools. In addition, as a result of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 8, a programme of inspections of the welfare of students in independent schools which are boarding schools is carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectors. In addition, the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 6 allows Scottish Ministers to serve a notice of complaint on an independent school in a case of "failure to provide adequately for the welfare of a child or children attending the school".6
In September 2005 there were 30,321 students in independent schools in Scotland, amounting to four per cent of all school students. There were 60 independent primary schools and 57 independent secondary schools. 80
