Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

As I stated in a press release on 12 June, I welcome the Accounts Commission examination of the evolving Public Private Partnership (PPP) landscape. The report is very positive about the difference which PPP projects have made to schools in Scotland. It is clear that conventional funding could not have produced the same step change in the schools estate. It is clear too that PPP has delivered real benefits in terms of project management, risk transfer and financial control and that PPP providers are delivering the schools rapidly, on schedule and with good control of construction costs.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27026 on 25 June 2002.

Composite classes are classes with more than one primary stage. The information listed in the following table shows the number of composite classes recorded in the September 2001 School Census, broken down by sequential year group and by education authority. Composite classes of more than two stages are also shown on the same basis.

	All	P1-P2	P2-P3	P3-P4	P4-P5	P5-P6	P6-P7	Multi
Scotland	4,630	669	570	570	581	525	691	1,024
Aberdeen City	97	11	14	15	15	22	19	1
Aberdeenshire	365	46	31	34	41	34	47	132
Angus	123	18	11	9	12	7	19	47
Argyll and Bute	193	24	9	23	16	18	26	77
Clackmannanshire	35	5	4	4	5	6	9	2
Dumfries and Galloway	262	34	17	23	23	19	31	115
Dundee City	57	9	8	10	12	9	9	0
East Ayrshire	101	19	11	16	17	15	16	7
East Dunbartonshire	61	9	10	11	9	6	14	2
East Lothian	62	9	11	8	8	7	9	10
East Renfrewshire	28	4	3	5	6	3	7	0
Edinburgh City	143	21	27	29	21	20	23	2
Eilean Siar	117	12	2	3	4	4	9	83
Falkirk	90	13	11	14	14	15	14	9
Fife	314	53	45	40	41	48	42	45
Glasgow City	384	61	70	57	61	58	72	5
Highland	440	50	35	36	47	30	52	190
Inverclyde	50	5	12	10	7	10	5	1
Midlothian	60	7	9	10	8	4	9	13
Moray	117	18	13	11	15	12	16	32
North Ayrshire	100	22	11	16	12	17	14	8
North Lanarkshire	298	35	55	53	46	48	50	11
Orkney Islands	37	6	0	5	1	1	4	20
Perth and Kinross	154	24	18	15	17	12	21	47
Renfrewshire	60	11	6	10	7	5	18	3
Scottish Borders	169	24	18	16	26	15	25	45
Shetland Islands	62	8	4	4	6	3	9	28
South Ayrshire	77	14	9	8	8	8	10	20
South Lanarkshire	297	53	43	42	34	42	45	38
Stirling	87	15	12	9	12	8	11	20
West Dunbartonshire	66	7	11	9	11	9	15	4
West Lothian	124	22	30	15	19	10	21	7

Composite classes are a traditional feature of Scottish schools. Local authorities and head teachers are responsible for determining a class organisation which best suits the circumstances of individual schools, including the formation of composite classes where this is considered necessary.

The ScotXed (Scottish Exchange of Educational Data) project is a partnership of the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) with local authorities, schools, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, HM Inspectorate of Education and Learning and Teaching Scotland to promote the electronic exchange of educational information to common standards. The project will provide better quality information and link-ups between education partners in Scotland and will encourage the good use of management information by schools and education authorities.Most of the information needed by different ScotXed partners already exists on school Management Information Systems. Adopting a common approach to the format in which this information is held and the way it can be transmitted will reduce the bureaucratic burden on teachers, administrative staff and school managers. Data will only have to be entered once and then can be used to meet the information needs of all ScotXed partners. This will be much more straightforward for teachers, administrative staff and school managers to provide information to those who need it.The introduction of automatic quality assurance procedures on school Management Information Systems will make the administrative burden lighter, since less time will have to be spent checking data to make sure they are accurate. ScotXed will also make possible a much wider range of benchmarking information, which will enable schools and authorities to produce analyses of data that are tailored to their particular needs, and assist with targeting resources where they are needed most.

The ScotXed (Scottish Exchange of Educational Data) project envisages that, by 2005, all major exchanges of data between ScotXed partners should be electronic. As well as transfers of data to the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED), this will include data transfers between schools, local authorities, colleges, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education.It is planned that most of SEED's school education statistical surveys will be carried out by ScotXed by 2005, starting with the Scottish School Census this autumn. Further details are on the ScotXed website at: http://www.svtc.org.uk/scotxed/.

The Scottish Executive Education Department has been instrumental in the establishment of a sub group of the General Teaching Council 5 Nations Group, which brings together the General Teaching Councils in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, to review mutual recognition of teaching entry requirements, as well as exploring other cross border registration issues.

All teachers who have not trained in Scotland who wish to teach here must seek admission to the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) register of persons entitled to teach in Scotland.I have asked Matthew MacIver, Chief Executive of the GTCS to respond. His response is as follows:Those teachers who hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with a teaching qualification from England recognised by the GTCS as fulfilling the council's requirements with regards to academic qualifications, professional training and relevant experience should have no difficulty in gaining registration to teach in Scotland. Those who hold QTS with a teaching qualification from England that the GTCS does not consider meets the standards required to teach in Scotland, such as some employment based routes, will be advised by the GTCS as to what course of action is required for registration to teach in Scotland.I also refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23862 today.

Education authorities must check that all teachers employed in publicly funded schools in Scotland are registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). Qualified Teacher Status does not give automatic acceptance to the GTCS register of those entitled to teach in Scotland. To gain entry to the register a teacher must satisfy the GTCS of their academic and professional fitness to teach.