Education Scotland ( gd, Foghlam Alba) is an
executive agency
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...
of the Scottish Government, tasked with improving the quality of the country's
education system
The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...
.
Origins
The creation of the Agency was announced by Scottish Government Education and Lifelong Learning Cabinet Minister
Michael Russell on 14 October 2010.
It was intended to bring to together the work and responsibilities of
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for the inspection of public and independent, primary and secondary schools, as well as further education colleges, community l ...
and
Learning and Teaching Scotland
Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS or LT Scotland) was a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, formed by the merger of the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum (SCCC) and the Scottish Council for Educational Technol ...
and was originally entitled the Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency (SEQIA).
The name was later changed to Education Scotland and the agency was established under this name on 1 July 2011.
On establishment Education Scotland also incorporated the Scottish Government Positive Behaviour Team, which aims to support Scottish schools and local authorities to introduce and embed approaches that promote positive relationships and behaviour, and the National CPD Team, which aims to provide strategic support for continuing professional development (CPD) and professional review throughout Scottish education.
Remit
Education Scotland's core purpose and strategic priorities are:
* to lead and support successful implementation of
the curriculum
* to build the capacity of education providers and practitioners to improve their own performance
* to promote high quality professional learning and leadership
* to stimulate creativity and innovation
* to provide independent evaluation on the quality of educational provision
* to provide evidence-based advice to inform national policy
* to develop its people and improve its organisational capability
Key areas of work
Evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching in Scottish schools and education services through Inspection and review of Scottish education
Provision of support and resources for learning and teaching via the Education Scotland online service.
References
External links
*
Executive agencies of the Scottish Government
Educational organisations based in Scotland
2011 establishments in Scotland
Government agencies established in 2011
Organisations based in West Lothian
Livingston, West Lothian
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