ATTAINMENT in Dumfries and Galloway schools is falling way below acceptable standards, a councillor has argued.
Annandale South Councillor George Jamieson has recently uncovered statistics which compare this region to others in Scotland, and he has been shocked at school performance, particularly in terms of literacy and numeracy.
Dumfries and Galloway is grouped together with seven similar councils in a ‘family group’, and the attainment of pupils is analysed within that group via the Local Government Benchmarking Framework. At last week’s education committee, a report was tabled which gave a basic overview of poor attainment in the region’s schools.
However, Councillor Jamieson, the SNP group’s education spokesman, dug deeper on the framework website and revealed the reality of the situation to his colleagues.
He said: “There are eight local authorities in our family group.
“Adult satisfaction of schools – we’re eighth. Positive destinations – we’re eighth.
“Average total tariff SIMD one (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) – we’re eighth.
“Average total tariff SIMD two – we’re seventh. Tariff SIMD three – we’re sixth.
“I could go on, but one of the really significant ones is the percentage of P1, P4, and P7 pupils achieving expected CFE level in literacy – we’re eighth out of eight. In numeracy, we’re seventh out of eight.
“I don’t think anybody in this room will be aware of that. We shouldn’t have to look for that seriously important stuff.
“It should be placed in front of us and discussed at committee.”
Gillian Brydson, the council’s education director, said: “I absolutely accept we need to do better.”
She then stated that the council education chiefs meet with family groups regularly and work is continually done as part of a collaborative improvement agenda.
She continued: “We’re not shying away from the fact at all that we need to do better, and our attainment needs to improve.
“Part of that is why our framework for inclusion, and our framework for improvement is so important to us.”
Councillor Jamieson then put forward a motion asking for the council’s schools quality and curriculum service plan 2024/25 to include an exploration of why schools in other local authority areas are outperforming schools in this region.
He also called for a closer look at why there is such a wide gap in SQA outcomes in secondary schools in Dumfries and Galloway.
Council leader Gail Macgregor said: “I completely sympathise with what Councillor Jamieson is saying, but I don’t have the information that he’s using in front of me to analyse that.”
The motion was then withdrawn after assurances were then given that the full attainment information would be included in the schools quality and curriculum service plan.
