Education Commission

A new education commission has been launched by the CSPP and Reform Scotland to examine the key aspects of schooling in Scotland.

The commission heralds a new partnership between Scotland's main think tanks and will include leading educationalists, representatives from different political parties, practitioners and figures from the business world.

The Commission on School Reform met for the first time last week under the chairmanship of Keir Bloomer, former President of the Association of Directors of Education and member of the group that wrote Curriculum for Excellence. Keir said:

"We live in a fiercely competitive world where the only guarantee of success is through improving educational standards. Many countries have made rapid progress in recent years. 

"China is the most spectacular example with the Shanghai education system's success in the recent PISA results surely representing a wake-up call to the rest of the world. Opinions may differ on how well the Scottish education system is doing but nobody can doubt that it needs to improve and keep on improving.
 
"This Commission will be independent. It will not engage in political points scoring nor in allocating blame but will try to form a realstic and fair evaluation of how well Scottish education is performing. How well does it serve all young people?  How does it compare with other countries?
 
"More importantly, the aim of the Commission is to be useful. It will offer positive recommendations for change. These are likely to cover mainstream education concerns like curriculum and pedagogy but they will probably focus also on other issues such as how the system is run and how to develop ambition and incentive."

Download further details of the group below.

 Members and Remit of Education Commission

A new education commission has been launched by the CSPP and Reform Scotland to examine the key aspects of schooling in Scotland.