Portfolio Education
Labour’s defeat in the 2007 election. In 2011, he stood in the election for presiding officer at the Scottish Parliament, but came second to the SNP’s Tricia Marwick. He admits his task is formidable, but is cool- headed about the challenges ahead. He says: “Generally there is a great deal of consensus about Scottish education and if the SNP are doing things that we believe to be right, then we will support them. In the short-term my job is to hold the SNP to account for the promises they made in 2007 and 2011. In the longer term, I’ve got to shape the Labour party’s strategy and offer on education, one that parents and teachers can understand and one they think is relevant to them.” For Henry, there are three key areas that need “immediate action”: colleges, falling teacher numbers and the Curriculum for Excellence. At the end of last year, Mike Russell announced an £11m cut in support to Scotland’s colleges. “I think the cuts inflicted on colleges are not only unsustainable, but will cause long-term damage to colleges and their ability to deliver for a very vulnerable group that we can’t afford to lose, like we did with a similar age group in the 1980s,” says Henry.
“Te other issues are supply teachers and the crisis that there is there – that’s a quick fix that needs to be delivered. Tey need to scrap the current pay deal and go on to a more equitable deal. What’s been offered is grossly unfair. It’s an attempt to get education on the cheap.” He continues: “Linked to that is the wider issue of falling teacher numbers. We’re seeing cuts to frontline education budgets not only for supplies and materials, but for support staff. Teachers are saying to me it’s having a profound and debilitating impact on their ability to deliver education.” Henry is also keen to voice concerns about the
SQA’s new exam system. “I think the issue is most acute in the secondary sector,” he says. “We need to make sure the training is in place, that all the resource materials are properly designed and delivered. It’s not good enough to offer a
“Scotland could stand on its own two feet as an independent country, I don’t doubt that”
complacent: ‘Oh, targets will be met’.” After 2007, the SNP education ministers “took their eye off the ball”, he says gravely. “I think they allowed education officials to drift.” Arguably the thorniest issue for the education sector is that of tuition fees. Here Henry treads carefully: “Te challenge is how we maintain a world-class university system that we can afford. I don’t have any immediate solutions for that, but equally we can’t lose sight of the fact that there are a huge number of young
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www.holyrood.com 30 January 2012
people going through our colleges and they’ve got a contribution to make not just to further education, but to higher education. We need to make sure they’re properly resourced and funded. We need to make sure that universities give proper recognition to their studies, which have been undertaken at FE colleges.” As Henry considers
the “devolution” of Scottish Studies, it is clear his concerns lie with its genesis. “In the past, politicians have not been involved in
the development of specific subjects in exams,” he says. “It’s been left to the professionals. New subjects like modern studies evolved over a long period of time after thorough discussion. Tis one seems more politically driven. It hasn’t actually come from the teaching profession. We just need to be wary of politicians of whatever colour trying to overtly influence what is taught in our schools.”
As might be expected from a politician long in the tooth, he refuses to be drawn into a heated
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Hugh Henry MSP
debate on independence. “I hope we would win a referendum,” he muses. “Not because I’m particularly scared of independence or because I am hugely hostile to it. Scotland could stand on its own two feet as an independent country, I don’t doubt that. “I don’t happen to see the value of us separating from the rest of the United Kingdom. I noticed the First Minister was trying to draw some parallels last week between what had happened in Ireland and Scotland’s current experience. In Ireland there was a history of oppression and discrimination which drove people towards seeking independence. We don’t suffer in that way, so there’s not the same sense of grievance and injustice so the two are not directly comparable. “Economically and socially, I think there are
advantages of being in a bigger partnership. Are there frustrations? Of course there are. Are there things that happen sometimes that I don’t like? Well yes, I don’t particularly like the fact that we’ve got a Tory government at Westminster. Alex Salmond sometimes portrays it as ‘their’ government. No, it’s actually our government. I just don’t see the need for having an independent Scotland.”
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