Teachers to back curriculum delay

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A teaching union is likely to call for a delay in the implementation of the new Curriculum for Excellence.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA) said the delay may be necessary to fully prepare secondary schools for the changeover.

The union is to debate a motion this week, calling for a year-long delay.

Education Secretary Mike Russell told Holyrood on Thursday that the implementation could be delayed if the evidence suggested it was necessary.

Preparations for the new curriculum, which is currently due to be introduced in all schools in Scotland in August, are generally thought to be going better in primary schools than secondary.

The evidence we have suggests very strongly that secondary schools are just not ready to implement Curriculum for Excellence Ann BallingerSSTA

The new system, which has been described as "revolutionary", is intended to encourage children to find out more information for themselves by offering more "joined-up" lessons rather than the traditional, more rigid separation between different subjects.

But SSTA general secretary Ann Ballinger told BBC Scotland: "The evidence we have suggests very strongly that secondary schools are just not ready to implement Curriculum for Excellence.

"There isn't the concrete information we need to produce the correct courses and to give our pupils in Scotland what they deserve - the very, very best courses from day one."

Ms Ballinger said delaying the start of the new curriculum was preferable to discovering three or four years down the line that it was flawed and had left the first pupils to go through it disadvantaged.

She added: "The worst case scenario for us is that children move through secondary school, reach Higher stage and then find that for some reason they don't have the skills necessary for them to achieve the best possible results, and that has an effect on their future.

"We think that it is very, very important that we get it right and that we start off with a very confident view that we have got it right and everything is in place.

"Our concern is that the skills-based approach works wonderfully in a primary school situation where cross-curricular is the norm but that there hasn't been the time taken to think through the implications of it in different subject areas in secondary.

"Subjects like modern languages, maths and PE have very different needs and these need to be addressed now before Curriculum for Excellence is implemented."

Before summer

Speaking at Holyrood on Thursday, Mr Russell assured MSPs, teachers and parents that the curriculum would be delayed if the evidence suggested it was necessary.

He said: "If that evidence says we want to do things in a different way, we will do them in a different way, and that includes perhaps delaying the in-point and making sure the system works for the children who are coming in this August.

"No delay for delay's sake - and delay if the evidence proves it."

The building evidence is likely to lead to a decision in the "next few months" but well before summer, Mr Russell said.