Scottish Government finally got something right on education

The Scottish Government has gotten a lot wrong when it comes to education in this country.

In fact, the Scottish Government has gotten so much wrong when it comes to education in this country that I could quite comfortably dedicate this weekly newsletter to that point alone without having to worry about running out of material before the next Holyrood election.

Some of the things they’ve gotten wrong have been technical, background issues that have, nonetheless, had a major impact. Into this category would fall decisions such as the scrapping of the national survey of literacy and numeracy standards – a choice that was made in a desperate attempt to prop up the standardised testing regime that Nicola Sturgeon wanted to impose, and which left us with a huge data gap that has caused enormous problems.

Other things they’ve gotten wrong have been incredibly high-profile, like the approval and attempted defence of an utterly indefensible exam-results algorithm that targeted pupils from the poorest areas for grade reductions (and boosted the grades of some young people from wealthy areas) when exams were cancelled in 2020. That one, in case you’ve forgotten, was justified on the basis of fairness – until protests from furious students forced the government into one of the most abjectly humiliating U-turns that Scottish politics has ever seen.

Other highlights include having to publicly execute a flagship Education Bill that was so bad that only the Tories would support it, the catastrophic mishandling of the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, and – just this week – the shameful decision to abandon their promise to make sure that no primary school child goes hungry.

And of course, underpinning all of this is the incredible arrogance of Nicola Sturgeon’s “I want to be judged on this” schtick that saw her, and her government, poison educational discourse and policy-making for nearly a decade in pursuit of petty, party-political advantage.

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But today, something incredible happened, an event so momentous that it threatens to shake the very foundations of Scottish public life.

The Scottish Government got things (mostly) right when it published new advice on school uniform policies.

Now, before we go any further, some context.

The obsession with school uniform in this country is weird. Really, really weird.

In terms of state education, you could travel from one side of Europe to the other and barely see a school uniform, despite the fact that several of those countries have far more effective education systems than ours. My colleague Garrett Stell, who has come here from the other side of the Atlantic, never once wore a school uniform and he seems to have largely turned out alright as well.

I’m well aware that lots of people on this odd little island genuinely believe that making children dress the same makes them smarter, or better behaved, or safer – but there are also people who genuinely believe that the earth is flat, that the moon landings were faked, or that trickle-down economics works. People believe all sorts of things, but it doesn’t make them true.

Even if we were to accept that making kids all dress the same is somehow vital to their education and development (as opposed to something imposed by people who just enjoy exerting power over others) then we would be sending our children to school in monochromatic overalls instead of forcing them to cosplay as mini, middle-class office workers. School uniforms aren’t about young people – they’re imposed to make a particular (and, I’ve always thought, particularly insecure) type of adult feel better.

But I digress.

As ridiculous as it is, school uniform is a pretty central part of schooling in this country, so it makes sense to have some clear national guidelines for how that should be handled. This has arguably become even more important in recent years as more and more schools have tried to force pupils to adhere to increasingly tight, and performative, uniform policies.

The government’s new advice is forty-odd pages long, but it really comes down to three principles: sustainability; equality, diversity and inclusion; and affordability. Let’s consider each in turn.

Advice on sustainability encourages a reduction in the number of uniform items needed and the avoidance of clothing that is difficult to wash and dry. Schools are also asked to support arrangements for access to “pre-loved clothing”, which is a good principle buried under stupid phrasing.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is about prioritising comfort and wellbeing, respecting young people’s individuality (to which they have a right, even if some people wish otherwise), and avoiding discrimination against, or the singling out of, those with additional support needs, disabilities, and different cultural and religious backgrounds. None of that should be too much to ask.

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The advice on affordability states that a full uniform for the year shouldn’t cost more than the school clothing grant, which stands at £120 for primary and £150 for secondary. This means avoiding branded items and, in a very welcome move, ending the practice of compulsory blazers.

Naturally, these completely reasonable considerations will upset some people, and indeed the specific point about blazers has already provoked a predictable flurry of faux-outraged hand-wringing from the usual sources and suspects. I imagine those people will be particularly energised by the fact there’s a specific guidance document for pupils too (and you can read it here).

But just this once, maybe we can ignore all that white noise and give credit where it’s due.

The Scottish Government has gotten a lot wrong when it comes to education in this country.

But pushing back a bit on school uniform demands is definitely the right thing to do.