Lib Dem leader plans head teacher 'hit squads'

azzuri · Lib Dem leader plans head teacher 'hit squads'

see - http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=470182006

Lib Dem leader plans head teacher 'hit squads'

THE cream of Scotland's head teachers would be parachuted into badly-performing schools under plans floated by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nicol Stephen.

Good teachers would also be paid more to teach in areas with the biggest problems.

Stephen trailed the two ideas in his keynote speech to the Scottish Liberal Democrats' spring conference, where he was speaking for the first time as party leader, and both are likely to appear in the party's Holyrood election manifesto next year.

He set the Lib Dems the goal of becoming the biggest party in that contest and said education would be a key battleground.

"Let's get the best head teachers moving to new schools and new challenges every five or seven years - using their skills to prevent complacency in our best performing schools and to transform poorly-achieving schools," he told the Aviemore conference.

"And if it means we should pay more to get the best teachers in areas with the hardest challenges, where they need it most, I say we should."

In an attack on Labour and Tory education policies, Stephen dismissed the "false choice" of city academies that benefited only a few.

"When a school gets a bad report, parents don't want to wait to see if a millionaire entrepreneur wants to take it over," he said. "What they want is someone to take action and sort it out - quickly.

"What schools need most is the inspiring leadership of great head teachers supported by top quality teachers and staff."

In his speech to a party still basking in its Dunfermline and West Fife by-election victory, Stephen claimed that result, if replicated in next year's Holyrood election, would win 23 more seats in the Scottish Parliament, where they have 17 MSPs.

"That is the scale of the opportunity we now have - a party to lead Scotland," he said.