By Claire Warrender

FIFE COUNCIL’S education service has made significant progress towards improving attainment and achievement in its schools, six years after being told it could do better.

A report published yesterday by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education has hailed Fife as the most improved education authority in Scotland, with increased levels of success in reading, writing and mathematics among primary and younger secondary school pupils.

Work to improve attainment among pupils between S3 and S6 is ongoing and a number of important steps have already been taken, the inspectors said.

The council has welcomed the findings of the report and has given an assurance that complacency will not be allowed to creep in as the service strives to improve further.

A previous inspection in 2002 recommended a number of areas for improvement and judged five aspects of the service as weak.

That prompted Fife Council to restructure its education department and the entire senior management team was replaced in a bid to turn things around.

Speaking yesterday, executive director of education Ken Greer said, “Fife has gone from a performance we would certainly want to see bettered to one of the best in Scotland.

“It is by a long way the most improved local education service in Scotland to date.”

He added, “We were put through a fairly intensive process and the results are very positive indeed.

“Attainment has improved dramatically from primary through to early secondary stages and we are confident that will find its way through to the upper stages as well.

“There is also very strong praise for what we do for the personal development of staff and how we manage our resources.

“What we have now in Fife is a very effective education service there to serve the needs of children.

“It’s very ambitious and it’s excellent to see this kind of praise for our work from an independent and fairly robust body, but we have another five years work until we finally get to where we want.”

The HMIe report notes that Fife Council faces a number of challenges including the need to deliver high quality services in the face of considerable efficiency savings.

It also points out the region has the second largest pupil population in the country.

Despite that, the inspectors praise the strong leadership and very effective teamwork within the education service as well as the focus on its key priority—improving the educational experience for every child in Fife.

Pre-school provision is judged to be very strong and children in almost all nurseries were making good or very good progress.

Primary school pupils have also improved significantly in the three R’s over the last three years, and in secondary schools S1 and S2 pupils are making good progress.

However, the report points out that the service has to focus on improving attainment for pupils in S3-S6, although this is broadly in line with national averages.

Inspectors were also impressed with the range of extra-curricular activities on offer in Fife and the work of staff in community learning.

There was also praise for the fact that all primary schools have pupil councils and the wide range of sports and music opportunities on offer, as well as Fife’s track record in dealing with discipline and behaviour.

Education’s psychological service was also highly praised within its own report for the “significant impact made on Fife’s children, young people and their families.”

As well as measures to improve attainment at S3-6 level, the inspectors identified three main points for action.

They said information and communications technology should be improved, changes should be made to the structure of the community learning and development service to improve outcomes for young people, and there should be development to ensure the impact on schools was consistent.

Chairman of the council’s education committee, Councillor Douglas Chapman, said, “A huge amount of hard work and effort across services has helped the inspectors reach their conclusions and congratulations are due to everyone involved.

“One of the council’s top priorities is improving educational attainment and achievement for all and I think this report proves that we are well on the way to doing that.

“This reflects very much the hard work, commitment and strong leadership which is coming from the senior management.”