John Swinney has been urged to improve the quality of a consultation on school governance after parents branded it “impenetrable”.
The Education Secretary was pressed on criticisms that the consultation was filled with jargon during an appearance before Holyrood’s Education Committee. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on plans to change the way schools are run with the aim of giving teachers, parents and communities more say in decision making.
But parents at a Glasgow meeting held to discuss the issue last month told the Herald newspaper that the questions posed were “completely impenetrable to your average parent”.
Committee member and Labour MSP Iain Gray said: “We read in the press that some of the parents there felt the document was filled with jargon, that the officials present couldn’t provide clarification for some straightforward questions, and they also felt that the questions the consultation asked of them really made little sense to them.”
Mr Gray called on the Education Secretary to set out what action had been taken to improve the consultation.
In response, Mr Swinney said the event had not been organised by the Scottish G overnment and he was not prepared to publish another consultation document.
He said: “The consultation document to me addresses the issues that have to be addressed and we’ll have a dialogue around the country at these different events.
“I’ll make sure that officials are in a position to address the questions that are raised and I certainly personally will be involved in a range of these different conversations, so I’ll be able to hear first-hand the different perspectives and views of parents.”
Mr Gray also raised concerns that a proposed national funding formula would lead to centralisation of decisions around budgets for particular schools, and called for assurances that if respondents to the consultation overwhelmingly rejected the proposal it would be withdrawn by the Government.
Mr Swinney insisted he would listen to the consultation responses, but added: ” I would also remind Mr Gray that the G overnment put this proposal in its election manifesto and the Government was elected as a consequence.”
Article originally published by Falkirk Herald
