Scotsman Bulletin Monday May 27 2024
Scotsman Head of News Dale Miller talks with Education Correspondent Calum Ross about a private school's plans to plug the teaching gap. A private school believes it has developed an online resource that could protect teacher jobs and expand subject choices for state school pupils across Scotland.
Scotsman Head of News Dale Miller talks with Education Correspondent Calum Ross about a private school's plans to plug the teaching gap. A private school believes it has developed an online resource that could protect teacher jobs and expand subject choices for state school pupils across Scotland.
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin.
00:08My name's Darryl Miller.
00:09I'm Head of News at the Scotsman.
00:11I'm joined by our Education Correspondent, Callum Ross.
00:15Callum, we're going to get to what you've been writing about over the past couple of days shortly,
00:21but to talk about the front page of today's Scotsman first.
00:26We led on SUNAC's national service policy.
00:30Some of the opposition parties, in particular Labor and Anasawa, branded it an unfunded gimmick.
00:37It was certainly one that got people talking and got the election campaign properly up and running.
00:44A genuine policy in the first to be announced by SUNAC and the Tories.
00:49Did it make a lot of sense and was it a good one?
00:52That is a question that we cover in the pages of the Scotsman today.
00:55And also on our site, you can read some analysis from Alexander Brown on that.
01:00Two and a half billion pounds a year this would cost by the end of the decade.
01:05So it doesn't come without a hefty price tag.
01:07We know Labor and Kyrstam are also going to put national security as an issue to be discussed throughout this week.
01:16So it feels like this is increasingly shaping as a key policy battleground that will feature heavily in the election campaign.
01:26Callum, just on to the story that you wrote about.
01:30You can find that at Scotsman.com today.
01:33But we talk a lot about problems with the education sector.
01:37We talk about are there enough teachers, financial pressures on universities, school violence.
01:43But you've actually written about a practical solution that's being explored by a Scottish private school.
01:48Can you tell us a bit about that?
01:50Yeah, that's right, Dale.
01:51We all remember the move to online learning during the pandemic when the schools were closed.
01:58And you mentioned some of the negatives we write about in terms of Scottish education.
02:02A lot of those have been linked to the disruption caused as a result of the closure of schools during the pandemic,
02:10rising school violence and developmental delays in young kids and attendance levels not really bouncing back.
02:18But for some, I mean, there has been some evidence emerging recently that for some pupils it was helpful actually moving online,
02:27particularly pupils with the likes of autism.
02:29Some of them may have found it a bit more helpful.
02:33They might find themselves becoming anxious about attending school in person.
02:39And that's also led to a new focus on online resources and improvements there.
02:46There was an interesting scheme called eSchool that was developed in the Western Isles kind of before the pandemic.
02:52And that sort of expanded during the Covid period.
02:58And today's story is about another one.
02:59It's one called RGC Online.
03:03It was developed by Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, an independent school.
03:08And it's now kind of offering hires in a couple of subjects and it's hoping to expand in the future.
03:15I spoke to Robin McPherson, the sort of head of the college there, about how it developed from that Covid period and about how he hoped it would be able to help the state sector kind of solve some of the issues you mentioned there.
03:30You know, we've known for a long time that some local authorities, some schools, particularly in rural areas, have struggled to recruit and retain enough teachers.
03:40And this can impact kind of subject choice, particularly for older pupils who might not be able to study, you know, the higher they want to study or the advanced higher.
03:50So I think Mr McPherson was kind of suggesting this might be a solution to those kind of problems.
03:57You know, a pupil in Tyree or somewhere in, you know, Aberdeenshire who wants to study philosophy, but, you know, the council, the school can't afford to, you know, pay for a teacher to teach philosophy.
04:12Maybe they can do it in RGC Online in the future.
04:16He said he's had some, there's been some interest from some local authorities, including Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire in particular.
04:24And he'd like to, I think he'd like to work a bit more closely with the Scottish Government and local authorities across Scotland to see if there's interest there.
04:33So it's quite interesting. It's, you know, it's live teaching.
04:38There's a teacher involved. It's not about getting rid of teachers.
04:41He's very clear about that. This is about protecting jobs.
04:44It's not about replacing teachers at all.
04:48So, yeah, it's certainly an interesting initiative and we'll see what the interest is like from the state sector.
04:56Callum, do you see it particularly benefiting rural schools in Scotland?
04:59Because I know you've written recently about Highland in particular and pressure on the local authority really around school closures, basically, you know, keeping the existing schools open because some of the roles are half full at best in some of these schools.
05:16But also getting teachers to go out there.
05:18I know there's been schemes for teachers when they graduate, effectively, to go out and work in rural areas and then maybe later come back.
05:27But can you actually foresee a future where this is an active solution to the fact that, you know, in areas like the Highlands, it can be difficult to get teachers and it can be difficult sometimes now to fund to keep schools open that aren't full?
05:42I think that's the thinking.
05:44Mr Macpherson has said they're the most interest they've had in the first year because it's been going for a year or two now already.
05:51And it has come from families in those more rural areas like the Highlands and Islands and the Scottish Borders, he said.
06:00And we have, you know, we've had stories recently.
06:02We had a story about a pupil in, I think, Argyll and Bute that was commuting 87 miles to another school to study a particular advanced higher.
06:11So, yeah, I mean, I think online learning, I don't think people shouldn't be seeing it as a replacement to go into school.
06:18It's still really important to go to school.
06:20And I think certainly the authorities would be emphasising that.
06:23But where there's gaps, you know, in terms of subject choices and where there is a problem in terms of recruiting teachers,
06:31I don't see why this shouldn't be kind of part of the conversation, whether it should be RGC online or eSchool or another kind of, you know, initiative.
06:39You know, that's for others to judge.
06:41But I certainly think online learning is here to stay and we should be making use of it where it's beneficial.
06:50You can read both the story and some analysis from Callum at Scotsman.com.
06:55Just go to the education tab in the navigation bar.
07:00It's going to be a big few weeks as well for education with more of those big issues like school violence and education reform on the agenda.
07:09Callum, thanks for joining us.
07:11And thanks to all our viewers.
07:12You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram X and go out and buy a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow.
07:18For all the latest on the election campaign.
07:20Thanks for joining us.