Senior Moray Conservative councillors have asked for a full debate on the subject choices available to S4 school students. They made their request following a meeting of Moray Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee yesterday (Wed 28 August) when they heard that the new 33-period school week will restrict subject choice to just six subjects.
Commenting on the request, Conservative Group Leader, Councillor Tim Eagle (Buckie) said: “The narrowing of subject choice in S4 across Scotland has been widely debated recently with several experts making it clear that subject choice reductions in S4 level are likely to have a negative impact at the Higher and Advanced Higher levels. I understand there are two sides to this debate and I am pleased that a full inquiry was conducted recently into this subject by the Scottish Government’s Education and Skills Committee where the Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith MSP has been very vocal about the effects of narrowing subject choice.”
“Moray is currently implementing a 33-period school week but this is being reviewed. We wanted to make sure today that not just the new structure but the choices on offer to our pupils is fully debated to ensure we are offering the best education possible to our young people. With the results of the 33-period school week and the report due very soon from the inquiry it makes perfect sense to come back to the committee to allow a full and fair debate on pupil choice.”
Councillor Claire Feaver (Forres) added: “We need to remember that Moray has a vision to aim for excellence in education. We are not aiming to be just “OK”, we want to be fighting for the top spot with the likes of East Renfrewshire and that means we need to ensure we have the right pathways and progressions for all our pupils no matter how academic they are. Currently some schools in Scotland give students the ability to study eight subjects which makes me think we are not offering the best to our highest achieving young people.”
