Search by topic
Curriculum for Excellence
By Fiona Hyslop, MSP and Peter Peacock, MSP
Two leading political protagonists in the drive to develop the Curriculum for Excellence share their thoughts on the issues, opportunities and challenges presented by a fundamental shift in our approach to education.
Fiona Hyslop MSP
As the new school year began, there was much for both teachers and students to get used to: new faces, subjects, buildings, timetable and even languages.
Now, however, we're some time in. Most people are adapting to their new routine and are embracing the opportunity to learn something new.
With so much happening at once, it can be hard to find the time to take a step back and think about the bigger picture. Which is why, in recent weeks, a DVD in which we set out our aims for Curriculum for Excellence, has been delivered to the headteachers of all schools so that teachers across the country can hear about the implications of the most revolutionary change in Scottish education for decades.
Change in this instance is definitely to be welcomed and embraced.
Scotland's teachers are increasingly grasping the opportunity to be at the forefront of a new approach to learning and teaching which will equip our young people with the skills they need to ensure this country holds its own in the world marketplace.
Curriculum for Excellence is a new way of looking at education in Scotland. It encourages and challenges teachers to think about how they can make their own approach to teaching ever more exciting, engaging and relevant in every pre-school centre, school and college. It is about far more than just the content of the curriculum and it extends well beyond schools.
The whole educational experience, from 3-18, needs to be well designed and we want schools, early years centres and colleges to reinforce the breadth of learning that has always been valued in Scottish education.
There will also be a focus on literacy and numeracy at every stage, appropriate stretch and pace for every child and teachers working together to make sense of what each child is being taught. Scotland's place in the world will also be at the heart of this new curriculum, with emphasis on Scottish contexts, history and culture. Our children will be encouraged to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work, helping them to follow an active and healthy lifestyle and plan for their future career.
Curriculum for Excellence is not about a "big bang" change. It is about teachers and other professionals leading change and improvement, reinvigorating life in the classroom and continuing to maintain the reputation of the Scottish education system as giving our children the best start in life.
We want the impact of this reform to be far-reaching. Our aim is to help our young people realise their talents and potential so that they are prepared for the future demands of modern society and a global economy.
We have a wide agenda for reform that is looking at how best to improve education policy in Scotland for the benefit of all of our young people. For this to happen, we want every teacher and professional working with young people to embrace Curriculum for Excellence and take it forward.
Peter Peacock MSP
The Curriculum for Excellence is important in its own right, but it has much greater potential than just over curriculum issues. The Curriculum for Excellence is at the heart of the ambitions we should all have for Scottish education.
At one level it is about giving teachers back professional territory and professional respect. It is about moving the teaching from the circumstances it found itself in at the end of the last century, undervalued and reduced to awaiting the next instruction of what to do, to re-establishing teaching as a profession with significantly more autonomy and freedom. The Curriculum for Excellence is perhaps the key means to enhance teaching.
The Curriculum for Excellence is also about addressing our exams system, the real determinant of what is taught in schools currently. Exams are important, but sound learning more so. We have an exams system which exerts huge influence on all school life, from what is taught, to how resources are allocated, and the whole focus of school life. Academic attainment dominates our system, where achievements and experiences ought to be given greater recognition, as should vocational learning.
Our teachers and pupils need more freedom to choose what is to be taught and exams need to assess what it is right that pupils learn, not determine what is about to be taught because it is about to be examined.
The Curriculum for Excellence is the best opportunity to start the process of re-engaging learners whose needs are not catered for by the approach currently taken in S1 and S2 - where a huge number of casualties are sustained as all too many young people find what is offered irrelevant and boring and disengage from learning. New curriculum flexibility and wider recognition of the importance of achievement, experiences and vocational learning and, significantly, more personalisation will aid more choice and more opportunity for those not responding to current approaches.
At the heart of the ability to deliver are teachers - Teachers for Excellence to deliver the Curriculum for Excellence - and there is a challenge to ensure the massive investment that is needed to equip teachers with the skills needed to take the greater freedoms and carry the new expectations is provided.
There are those who are becoming disillusioned at what they perceive as a loss of pace and of clarity. There are those who worry about a return to a rigid presentation approach to the emerging new exams system. But there remain a huge number of enthusiasts for the Curriculum for Excellence and I count myself as one of them. The vision and the simplicity of the central concepts need to be kept to the forefront among all the technicalities and processes that will inevitably surround its implementation. The system needs to remember the shape of the wood and not get lost looking at the trees.
The prizes remain high, the frustrations of implementation probably inevitable, but no one should abandon the idea that there can be a better approach. It is the Curriculum for Excellence that provides that opportunity.