{"id":2627,"date":"2026-06-17T10:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:17:55","slug":"main-feature-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/main-feature-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet Secretary Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently appointed Cabinet Secretary M\u00e0iri McAllan, delivering her first speech outside of the Scottish Parliament since her appointment, gave a brief overview of her initial thoughts and priorities on Scottish education in the years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am delighted to be able to join you on my two-week anniversary of being appointed as Cabinet Secretary for education. It is great to get out and speak to and listen to folk. My preferred approach of listening and engaging is what I intend to adopt in my role as Cabinet Secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms McAllan went on to answer a series of questions from AGM delegates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the poverty-related attainment gap, she said, \u201cEradicating child poverty is at the heart of our government\u2019s ambitions. We are taking forward actions every day. There is absolutely more to do \u2013 such as our universal roll-out of breakfast clubs in schools. We are trying really hard, but we know that there is more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a national Staged Intervention model, Ms McAllan said, \u201cI have a lot of faith that, if we work together on the staged intervention model, we can deliver it quickly \u2013 but we also have to get it right. There are very varying needs within our schools, so the model must reflect this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on to violence against teachers, she said, \u201cIt is totally unacceptable that anyone should go to work and face violence. I am with you on this, I want to do more to help you deal with it. I am two weeks into the job, but I want to work with you to tackle this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Discussing the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, Ms McAllan said, \u201cI am coming in quite late in the development of this work, but I have already met with Education Scotland to check on its progress. I am told that the profession did not have sufficient time when CfE was implemented, so I want to make sure you have the time you need this time around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the long-awaited professional registration of Instrumental Music Teachers, the Cabinet Secretary said, \u201cI can\u2019t give any commitments on this today, primarily because I still need to get a grip of all aspects of workforce planning. But I will commit to looking at this with a view to taking it forward.\u201d
Responding to a question on online teaching models, Ms McAllan said, \u201cI am worried that I may come across as a bit of a luddite. But I believe in face-to-face interaction, and I believe that is the foundation of education with that interaction between pupils and teachers. I will take these discussions up with COSLA and local authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in response to a question about the Health & Safety dispute at City of Glasgow College, the Cabinet Secretary said, \u201cNoone should have to go on strike to protect their health & safety. The HSE made very clear recommendations. I understand that the Scottish Funding Council is overseeing this process, and I will be keeping a very close eye on progress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently appointed Cabinet Secretary M\u00e0iri McAllan, delivering her first speech outside of the Scottish Parliament since her appointment, gave a brief overview of her initial thoughts and priorities on Scottish education in the years ahead. \u201cI am delighted to be able to join you on my two-week anniversary of being appointed as Cabinet Secretary for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mainfeatures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2955,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/2955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/agm2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}