Thunderer: It ’ s time the elite gave junior colleges a chance to shine Kenny Kemp Wednesday June 02 2021, 12.01am, The Times W ho is properly accountable for Scotland’s poorly performing school education system? A recent Audit Commission report said: “There is wide variation in education performances across councils, with evidence of worsening performances on some indicators in some councils.’’ One of the worsening areas is the poverty-related attainment gap. So who carries the can? Do we blame John Swinney , the former education secretary? That’s a hard one when an extra £750 million was invested by the Scottish government in trying to close the attainment gap. No — let’s shine a spotlight on an educational elite hidden behind the curtain. These are the directors of education across Scotland’s 32 councils. This is a powerful group of well-remunerated people who are responsible for local policy on providing school education, and accountable for improving outcomes. Education Scotland may be the executive arm of the government tasked with trying to support improvement in education, but education directors and their directorates are meant to be the spearhead. But outcomes for those not in education, employment or training have not improved. I can highlight an initiative in which this stubborn elite killed off an undoubted success story. Jim McColl, a businessman, set up Newlands Junior College in Glasgow in 2014. It was a five-year pilot project supported by Sir Arnold Clark and companies such as the Malcolm Group and Weir Group, and it received Swinney’s blessing. But Glasgow’s educational directorate did not want it to succeed because the idea smacked of business interference in state education. The authorities in Glasgow reluctantly put up with it until the opportunity came to shut it down. But the concept of standalone junior colleges for disengaged 14 to 16-year-olds is a worthy one. Of those who completed two years at Newlands, 92 per cent went on to positive destinations of further college, an apprenticeship or a full-time job. These were spectacular results given the expectations for these disadvantaged youngsters. But the educational elite was unwilling to find ways to embrace this modest, business-back ed innovation. Scotland’s educational directors should be encouraged to support standalone junior colleges, rather than strangle an idea because it wasn’t “invented” by educational professionals. Kenny Kemp is author of A for Achievement, A for Attitude, A for Attendance: The Life-Changing Endeavour of Newlands Junior College (Mereworth Publishing) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2 F95751b86-c320-11eb-a26e-4c086490cfe1.jpg?crop=1000%2C1000%2C250%2C0