Grove Senior Pupil Becomes Member of the Education Committee for 2013-14

At the Education Committee on Monday night, Lorna Allan, a senior pupil at Grove Academy joined the Committee for the first time. Lorna was nominated by the City Wide Pupil Representative Council to be to be the pupil member of the Education Committee for Session 2013/2014. 

Lorna is the second pupil representative on the Education Committee following a decision of the City Council held on 20th August, 2012 where it was agreed to seek nominations for parent and pupil representatives to join the Education Committee.

As the Pupil representative for 2012/2013 had left school, a new nominee was sought and Lorna was chosen by her peers.

Pupil and parent representation on the Education Committee was one of the Dundee Labour Party commitments in our manifesto for the local government elections in May 2012. I am therefore pleased to see this in practice and delighted that a Grove senior pupil will be a part of the Education Committee for 2013/14.

Commenting on Proposals for Additional Pupil and Parent Members of the Education Committee

At the Full Council Meeting on Monday 20 August 2012, there is a proposal to extend the membership of the Education Committee by adding three further members; two parent council members and one senior pupil. 

One of the parents, would be nominated from the members of Nursery and Primary School Parent Councils while the other would be chosen from the ranks of the members of the Secondary School Parent Councils. The senior pupil member would be nominated from the members of the City Wide Pupil Council.

I think it is a sound idea to provide a pupil voice and more parental voices on the Education Committee. Our pupils are at the sharp end of many profound changes as a result of introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence so it is a good idea to make a clear link between the City Wide Pupil Council and the Education Committee. While some Councillors are also parents of children currently in our schools, I think it is right to enhance the voices of parents at the Education Committee and make a link through them with multiple viewpoints from our network of parent councils. 

Of course, I could not but welcome this extension to the membership of the Education Committee, because a very similar proposal was contained in the Dundee Labour Manifesto which we put before the voters in May 2012 elections in Dundee. I am glad that the SNP administration have been prepared to seek out good ideas, wherever these reside.

I do however have a question about the way the proposal has been framed. I wonder for example what these three additional members will think about their status as the only non voting members of the Committee unlike the two trade union and three religious representatives on the Committee?

  

I also think that to make a success of this development, we will need to think more about the agendas and the formality of the meetings. 

Often the Education Committee agendas are very thin and avoid matters that are really crucial. For example, the Agenda of the Education Committee on Monday night contains only two items; the approval of a £10,00 grant to the Prince's Trust Fairbridge Programme in Dundee and the reporting of contracts for school taxis which has already been approved during the recess. Important as these are, it's not very compelling stuff to come in for or what parents and pupils might most aspire to influence. Why isn't there a report on Monday about the SQA examination results in our schools? The pre-appeal statistics are apparently available and were quoted in the press by the Education Convener more than two weeks ago but are not being presented to the Education Committee on Monday. Now items like that might really interest and engage the parental and pupil member of the Committee.

I think the Council should also give consideration to relaxing the formality and procedures in our meetings if we want to really involve the new additional members. The way standing orders are rigidly enforced by Conveners often seems to be designed to stifle rather than facilitate a rigorous examination of proposals and a lively debate.

Adding a Pupil and Parental Voice on the Education Committee

I have written to Leader of the Administration, Ken Guild, whose position was confirmed at the Council meeting on Monday night 21st March 2012. While all eyes at the meeting were on which Councillors were made Lord Provost  and Committee Conveners, the Council was also invited to approve the two trade union and three religious representatives that are also members of the Education Committee. 

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children and young people have a right to have their views taken into account in decisions made about matters that affect them. At a time when the voice of our young people in decision making in our City is facilitated through the Dundee Youth Council and the City wide Pupil Council, is it not time we took one more step further by inviting a nominee from our senior school pupils to join us in the Education Committee?

Scottish Labour in Dundee were convinced of the merit of this idea and put this in our manifesto for the local government elections. We proposed that the Education Committee should co-opt a parent representing the citywide group of Chairpersons of Parent Councils together with a senior pupil nominated by the City wide Pupil Council.

I would think there should be cross party support for this because two senior pupils were invited to join the Education Review Group by the last Education Convener and of course the SNP have been arguing for the inclusion of 16 year old voters in the forthcoming referendum on the  proposed separation of Scotland from the UK. Likewise there are compelling reasons for a stronger parental voice on the Education Committee. I have already checked with the Head of Legal and Democratic Services on the Council and he has confirmed that there is no legal impediment to what I have proposed.

I didn't want to be divisive so I  wrote to Ken Guild to propose this and invite him to bring forward a proposal to the Council meeting yesterday or the next Education Committee on 25 June.

In his reply to me Councillor Guild thanked me for my email and said:

"I am not hostile to the proposals which I think could be looked at as a review of the business of the Education Committee.  I have asked officers to gather information concerning non-elected membership of Education Committees or their equivalent in other Scottish local authorities."