Class action; The Great Debate on Scottish education continues for

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Jun 16, 2002 | by Douglas Fraser

Likewise, he wants to see foreign experience of involving business permeate the classroom, as local companies do with employee volunteer schemes in American classrooms and as the main employers' organisation in Norway has done, in brokering 4000 contracts between its members and both primary and secondary schools: "The traditional view has been that you get one week of work experience in fourth year, and that prepares you for the world of work and enterprise, but we all know it's not like that. Business is quick to criticise the lack of skills, and sometimes literacy and numeracy problems, but very few companies get involved in the life of a school. There are huge opportunities for local companies and businesses to become more involved.

There are political undercurrents here, from a schools and children ministry run by MSPs from both coalition parties. Stephen and the LibDems want to wrestle back a mantle they used to claim of being the party of education. But until autumn, the responses to the debate will be worked through by Stephen and Labour's Jamieson together. And while the best proposals may go into both their manifestos for next year, this is not merely a one-year strategy, but a plan which could cover decades. The challenge, says the junior minister, is to build a consensus "to achieve in 10 years what we could otherwise achieve in 20".

CATCH UP:

The Scottish Executive's Great Debate on Education has had plenty advertising money spent on it, but have Scots bothered to take part? Ministers want the public to offer ideas about what needs fixing, and where the vision should be for the long-term future of schooling. To start a major Sunday Herald series on the future of Scottish schooling, the Executive is at last opening up about its own 'blue skies thinking'.