Guernsey Press

Inspection changes adds uncertainty

AN ANNOUNCEMENT that Ofsted will become the inspector of State schools and colleges from September 2019 is another sign of an education system that is in flux.

Published

Education Scotland has been responsible for the inspection regime since the 2014-15 academic year - a change that was much lauded at the time.

It is a crucial role that should help ensure that parents can be assured about the quality of education their children are receiving.

Continuity in this respect helps build confidence, knowing that one report is comparable with another, and that the standards being assessed are consistent and understandable.

Openness and transparency are key.

This change may have been somewhat forced on Education, Sport & Culture, with the incumbent preferring to concentrate its resources in Scotland, but it adds further uncertainty to an already very uncertain world.

The future of secondary and post-16 education remains on the drawing board, as, to a large extent, does that of the primary sector, even with the recent announcement on a desire to redevelop La Mare Primary.

Parents, pupils and teachers continue to live and work without a clear sight of the future.

Education has now pledged to work with Ofsted to develop an ‘inspection framework appropriate for local circumstances’.

What no-one expects that to mean is a watered-down regime that paints schools in a better light than if it was being shone in the UK or elsewhere.

The new regime needs to be robust enough also to help demonstrate to those already sceptical about the move away from selection that the overhaul has helped lead to a better secondary system.

That will be even more difficult due to the break from the current inspectors.

Inspections need to strike a balance too, so that they are not overly cumbersome or overbearing for teachers and schools.

Education, Sport & Culture rightly has many critical eyes on it at the moment and this is just another example that its workload is continuing to pile up.