On 20 January 2025, Scottish think tank, Reform Scotland, published a report calling for major education reform in Scottish high schools.
The report was co-written by Bruce Robertson, the headteacher of Berwickshire High, and Professor Lindsay Paterson, a professor of education policy at the University of Edinburgh.
The report acknowledges the |long decline| of Scottish education, blaming the current “Curriculum for Excellence,” which was implemented in 2010.
Reportedly, this curriculum is too focused on facts and skills, instead of placing facts into their respective contexts, and understanding that “skills are knowledge in action.”
Furthermore, it claims that teachers are given too much customisation over what they teach.
The report argues this risks less-qualified teachers conducting lessons which do not link with each other, from lesson-to-lesson, and throughout school years, thus failing to meaningfully educate students.
The recommended “knowledge-based” curriculum would teach students necessary facts and their wider context and significance. This approach was implemented by Berwickshire High in 2021, which is used as a case study for this report.
At Berwickshire High, this reformed curriculum proved successful.
Since 2019, the percentage of students achieving five or more level 5 and 6 qualifications has increased by approximately 20 per cent.
After the reform was introduced, inspectors commented that “the quality and consistency of learning, teaching and assessment has improved considerably across the school.”
However, despite the success of a knowledge-based curriculum, Paterson and Robertson argue that it “would be a mistake” for this approach to be adopted nationally immediately.
Instead, they argue that a greater advisory board should set objectives for which skills schools must teach students and that teachers should then create their curriculums in accordance with these learning goals.
In a comment to The Student, Professor Paterson, co-author of the report, elaborated on how to reform the curriculum.
“Every school faces distinct circumstances… the best way in which Berwickshire’s experience could influence other schools would be if these schools learnt directly from Berwickshire, and adapted its model to their own requirements.”
Paterson also claimed that a decline in education standards “probably does contribute” to the declining enrolment of Scottish students at Scottish universities, although factors such as the “cost to the government” of free tuition for Scottish students is also significant.
He went on to mention feeling “optimistic” for the future of Scottish education, “because many [educators] are already trying to improve things.”
“School” by MischaTuffield is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.