We continue to work with partners on the development of a digital strategy for education.

We are engaging with a range of stakeholders including local authority employers, university providers and the teaching unions to work collectively to raise the profile of teaching as a highly rewarding career.

Work is ongoing and we would expect to confirm a set of actions by the end of this academic year.

The initiation of a systematic curriculum improvement cycle announced on 12 December 2023, stems from the OECD 2021 report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” and its specific recommendation for Scotland to "develop a systematic approach to curriculum review” which was accepted by Scottish Government.

Prior to the announcement in December, the Curriculum and Assessment Board, which includes a range of stakeholders including the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland, leading academics, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority, had already considered and offered views on a range of papers in relation to taking forward a systematic curriculum review cycle in Scotland.

The minutes of Curriculum and Assessment Board meetings are available at: https://www.gov.scot/groups/curriculum-and-assessment-board/

The Scottish Government home education guidance sets out the legal position on home education and provides advice on the roles and responsibilities of local authorities and parents in relation to children who are home educated.

This guidance is currently in the process of being updated following consultation with local authorities, other public, community and voluntary sector bodies and home educators and their relevant representative bodies. Scottish Government will engage further with stakeholders part of this process and we expect the publication of the refreshed home education guidance to be later this year. Officials will ensure that stakeholders and the public will be notified of the publication date.

The Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group figures are indicative and are provided by universities at the start of the academic session. The Higher Education Statistics Agency will publish official data for 2022-23 in April 2024. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into modern language Initial Teacher Education programmes.

This data will help to inform the work of the Strategic Board for Teacher Education on improving recruitment to hard to fill subjects, such as modern languages.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council have also offered to work with universities to develop alternative routes into subjects which are classified as a priority subjects, including modern languages.

As set out in my statement to Parliament on 12 December 2023, Maths will be the first curricular area to be revised as part of the new systematic curriculum improvement cycle.

The update to the Maths curriculum will begin in 2024 and will begin to be tested with Scotland’s teachers later in the year. Literacy and English will be next, with work on that also beginning this year.

Decisions on which curricular areas should be prioritised following Maths/Numeracy and Literacy/English and timescales for those further packages of work, will be informed by evidence and will be subject to discussions with key stakeholders and delivery partners.

Since the introduction of this additional funding from 2020, teacher numbers have increased from 52,247 in the 2019 teacher census to 54,033 in the 2023 teacher census.

The initiation of a systematic curriculum improvement cycle announced on 12 December 2023, stems from the OECD 2021 report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” and its specific recommendation for Scotland to "develop a systematic approach to curriculum review” which was accepted by Scottish Government.

Prior to the announcement in December, the Curriculum and Assessment Board, which includes a range of stakeholders including Education Scotland, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland, leading academics, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority, had already considered and offered views on a range of papers in relation to taking forward a systematic curriculum review cycle in Scotland.

This work was referenced in a letter sent by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to Committee on 31 October 2023. The letter is available at:

https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/education-children-and-young-people-committee/correspondence/2023/cab-sec-response-ecyp-commitee-oecd-implementation.pdf

Having reviewed the information presented by local authorities, the Scottish Government has confirmed that we will not withhold funding in 2023-24 from those who did not maintain teacher numbers.

While the Scottish Government remains disappointed by the small reduction in teacher numbers, we do not consider that withholding funding at this stage in the financial year would be in the best interest of learners.

The Registrar of Independent Schools has advised that 83 schools have completed surveys of their estates, with 8 awaiting results of a survey or in the process of procuring a survey. Of the schools where surveys have been completed, 76 schools have confirmed that there is no RAAC present on their estate, and 7 schools have confirmed the presence of RAAC.