27/10/2011 Newsnight Scotland

attitude on the periphery. Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, when you're

choosing a school for your child, every parent wants the best, so

what information should be available to inform that choice? Is

new government policy making the whole process more difficult?

And, what are the magic ingredients that have made Glasgow an

internationally renowned centre for contemporary art?

Good evening. What's your first thought when the government decides

to stop letting you see information? No doubt you are

suspicious. So what is behind the move by the education department to

stop collating and publishing statistics on the number of so-

called placing requests by parents who are trying to get their child

into another school? It has confounded educationalists who

believe tables of information help parents and policy-makers and it

coincides with an initiative in Edinburgh to encourage pupils to

use their local school rather than It may be the best years of our

lives, but it can be an agony for parents. Choosing a school for your

little darlings is an enshrined right. It didn't used to be. You

have no choice until the 1980s but to send your child to be designated

local score -- school. But since placing requests came in, thousands

of families opt for a different establishment. At the last count

two years ago, it was nearly 30,000. The government had been collecting

the figures for years and publishing them. Now after a review

and a consultation, they have decided to ask government bean-

counters to start adding them up. Does it matter? Evidence is

required for public policy. It will be known by government, local

authorities and schools. What has been ended is the ability for

parents and other people to get hold of that figures.

placements remain a central part of the educational system. Parents

value the opportunity they have to make a choice. They might not

exercise their right, but they welcome that opportunity. And for

those who do want to choose the school their child goes to will be

against the restriction. There is little doubt that there is pressure

on councils to keep control of requests as parents make their own

judgment of the schools on offer. Some of the schools are very poor.

We have a parental charter and parents can choose the school that

they send their children to and what we are doing is encouraging

parents to go to their local catchment school before they enrol

their children, told to the head teacher, have a look round and talk

to the children. I think they will be pleasantly surprised. We are

trying to persuade parents to use their local primary school. Taken

together, you might be forgiven for thinking there is a trend

developing. Don't bother the council and ignore the fact that

many parents and others are I'm joined now from Edinburgh by

Lindsay Paterson, Professor of Educational Policy at Edinburgh

University and by the former leader of East Lothain Council Dave Berry.

This rather detailed point about statistics. This particular set of

statistics, and nationwide figure of how many parents are choosing to

send their children outside the catchment area - why is it

important for parents that it should be there? The annual

publication is more detailed than that. You have the figures from all

local authorities and you get it separately for primary and

secondary schools. As the general evaluation of how content parents

are with local schools, they are a broad and valuable contribution to

the public debate. They are not everything that is needed because

you need more research, but as a starting point for debate, it is

invaluable. Presumably, is it right the trend has been upwards? Slowly

upwards. It grows very rapidly at first and has risen slowly since

the legislation was in Greece. Once more schools are fall, especially

when local authorities are under financial pressures, local are up

his -- local authorities cannot refuse a placement on the grounds

of cost. The other thing that is new is this role that Primary One

class sizes are capped at 25. It means that they are having to

enjoy another -- employee another teacher or build another classroom.

Essentially it is stable, but stable at a high level. But the

problem is that officially, although it is ambiguous, parental

choice was encouraged. Now there are legal caps on class sizes which

militate against parents having a choice. Scotland is ambivalent

about placemen choice. It was introduced in the 1980s and became

instantly very popular. Everyone knows they the right - that

everyone knows they have been right to make a choice. No political

party it will touch with a barge pole any formal proposal to end the

bike to a placement requests, but all of them apart from the

Conservatives are trying to nudge in that direction and therefore we

end up with a confused situation. This is the problem. There is an

ambivalence towards this. Everyone will say parental choice is a great

thing, but the legal cab at 25, irrespective of its merits on its

own terms, the effect of that has been to deprive parents of choice.

Edinburgh council to they said that almost 40% of parents who requested

a school outside their catchment area were rejected this time

compared to about only 10 or 11 % the year before. That is the direct

result of this cap. A I am not surprised they had been rejected

because there are limited places because of the changes in the

classroom size. Education is for the children and parents need to

understand that academic achievement is not the only factor.

Children go to school to get an education and that includes social

skills. If they spend their time travelling to and from the locals

call -- to and from a school outside the catchment area, they

are not making friends locally. parents are thinking of the state

are telling me they do not want me to choose which call my parents go

to. -- which school. We are not trying to stop people doing things.

Parents have to understand the broader picture before they make

that choice. No-one is arguing about taking the choice the way,

but parents are generally not experience about the education

system. They have not had a lot of interaction with it and there are

other factors that they need have an understanding of. Just shipping

a child across the city may not be the right thing. Everyone would

agree with what has just been said. Of course you want children --

parents to look at their local school, but that quickly shades

into you are a nuisance because you want your child to go to a school

that does not suit us, the We know from research that most of

the influence on children's progress is inherited. Of

environmental influence, about three-quarters come from parents

and family. On the one-quarter from school. Parents are the major

influence on their children's progress. The practice not to

exercise the right of parents would replace their child flies in the

face of evidence. I know one of the things you were floating when

you're running East Lothian was some sort of, I presume it was an

attempt to get the sense of community, was taking schools

partially outside of the control of local authorities. Did anything

happen with that? The difficulty we have with that was that engaging

with the local community and having people take responsibility for the

running of the schools, even partially, we did not get enough

enthusiasm. Obviously, we have to be prepared to give up some of

Faherty, but there has to be people ready to take it on and look at how

we can run the school. The issue here is the community. Education

does not happen in a vacuum. Each of our towns in East Lothian have a

very good community. But children, the parents are all part of the

same community. We would much rather they stayed in the community.

There is more for the children. you see this being resolved in any

satisfactory way, Lindsay Paterson? You suggested area that politicians

have every interest in not talking about this. I do not think it will

be resolved. The dilemma for politicians is it is expensive and

causes planning difficulties. But the genie is out of the bottle and

it has been out of the bottle since the Conservatives introduced this

legislation 30 years ago. It cannot be put back in. I do not see any

sense of turning back the tide, four and a desire to do so. We

should be encouraging parental involvement in education. I would

like to say I am very much for that as well, but the schools need to be

comparable. There cannot be a huge range of capabilities within the

schools. They must be equal in status then the parental drive will

be limited. We will have to leave this particular discussion there.

It may not be apparent to many of its citizens, but Glasgow is world

famous for something more edifying than poor health and heavy drinking.

We have produced five Turner Prize winners and have a 50-50 chance of

producing another one. Two of the four nominees are based in Glasgow.

What attracts artists to live and He Glasgow has been one of the most

creative and inventive cities in the world. At the heart of design.

But after the Second World War, the city entered a decline as its

industrial base was eroded. Something happened in the 1980s

that turned Glasgow from a post- industrial city down on its luck

into one of the most important artistic cities not only in Britain,

but in the world. For those in the know, they say

this cannot be emphasised enough. People recognise Glasgow as a

centre for art as they do with New York, London and Berlin. People in

Glasgow do not realise this is what they are recognised for. And if

proof was needed of Glasgow's success, a yardstick is the Turner

Prize. Since 1986 there have been 12 finalists from the city and five

of them have been winners. It is a good city to work from. You can be

out and socialise and be part of everything that is going on, or you

can hide away and get on with things. For me it was always about

people. The art school, and the transmission Gallery became an

He the Glasgow School of Art is the foundation on which the Glasgow Art

Scene has been built. Because Glasgow was in a situation where

there was not a great deal going on it created a ground zero which was

quite excited the -- exciting for people to make art and music. There

was an upsurge of lots of grass roots activity from the 1970s.

Transmission Gallery, the women's gallery, they all had their genesis

in that moment which was quite economically depressed and there

was not much art infrastructure. You might hear some hyperbole from

certain quarters saying it is the centre of contemporary art in

Europe or the UK. They are kind of right outside of London, may be

Berlin, Glasgow is the place. People will look back on this

period and say it is an extraordinary explosion of talent

and different ways of thinking of doing art. In 2001 there were 415

professional artists. It is estimated there are more now. They

contribute millions to the Glasgow economy. In 2006, Glasgow

International was very successful and an economic survey was done.

They found for every point that they spent on Glasgow International,

�9 came back. That was a real tipping point and made people and

Glasgow City Council thing, this really does work for the economy of

the city. It boosts the profile of Glasgow and is generating income.

The artists are very much part of the city. Also the citizens of the

city have been brought up in the city that is culturally lead.

Whether they recognise that or not, I think if they go anywhere else

they would realise it may be is missing and somehow you feel very

much part of film, poetry, writing music that happens in the city.

there a good opportunity that someone from Glasgow will win the

Turner Prize this year? There is a 50% chance. We have two out of four

listed artists. I think Karla, whose work is in the gallery, has

emerged as the favourite. I think she is doing some extraordinary

things with the idea of structure - - sculpture, almost exploding the

idea of the sculpture. And think, Carla is the favourite at the

moment, but everyone would be delighted if Maarten one. If one of

the two Scottish art this is successful, it will only go to

reinforce Glasgow's dominance in the contemporary art market.

However there is concern due to the state of the economy if we do not

invest in two new talent, Glasgow could damage its hard-won

reputation for excellence. Five am joined by the head of fine

art at Glasgow School of Art. Professor Roger Wilson, of what is

interesting about this is that obviously there are some hallowed

institutions of the arts in Glasgow, your own not least amongst them.

There is a sense that the art scene in Glasgow has created itself

almost spontaneously. I wish that it were spontaneous. They do not

think it is spontaneous. If you think of the Glasgow School of Art

has been an exceptionally good art school for over 100 years, this is

not a recent development. The students are from a long line of

graduates who have been attracted to the art school. Good students

make good art schools. It is that long-term quality that we are

talking about here. Not a recent clash in the pan or novelty. That

is the difference between Glasgow and many other institutions. It has

been a bit up and down, hasn't it? Glasgow has had its periods were it

has been pretty much in the lead or alongside London and the UK. I am

curious as to why you think now is a time which seems to be one of

where it is flourishing. There is a modern version of civic pride in

Glasgow that is part of the art school ethos as well. It is quite

contagious. Students, even from outside of Glasgow or the UK, pick

it up quite quickly. There is a welcoming, warming appreciative

atmosphere about the place which you really do not get in other

places. That has gently eroded any of the difficulties that higher

education has had and the underfunding of higher education is

now legendary. It is actually easing off, that problem of Roy

period of time. One of the points the film was making is that hit a

third is not just your particular field of Fine Arts, it is the fact

that is embedded in a city where there is literature and poetry

going on. Does that help, so that Glasgow becomes a brand which young

artists become attracted to? Absolutely. In many respects the

museum and gallery strata of any institution is any part and of it.

Students find their own levels which are largely underground. Yes,

that is true. The City's culture behind the official culture is

terribly attractive. I am curious as well, do you think you could be

badly affected by the change in the fee system that is coming in next

year? The Glasgow Art Scene -- Glasgow art scene is not just

Scottish, it is very international. If you start charging 9,000. Fees

to students from the rest of the UK, but could put them off. It could. I

am not going to be an apologist for student fees here. But actually, if

you are obliged to spend that money, you have to ask the question where

would you rather spend it. We will have to leave it there. A quick

look at tomorrow's front pages. The Herald, Leeds on Robert Black's

The Scotsman, top bosses pay rises 50% in one year.

That is all for this week, we will be back again on Monday. Until then,

It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. There could be

missed in the morning. Be aware of that if you're on the move at first

thing. Most of us will have a lovely day with a lot of sunshine.

Temperatures nothing spectacular. For East Anglia and the south-east,

it will stay cloudy with the odd spot of rain. For such western

parts of England, we have lost the rain clouds. It'll be a sober

afternoon for much of the south- west. Much of Wales as well. For

Northern Ireland, it will be a bright and breezy afternoon, the

rain clouds holding off. Most of Scotland will have a fine day, the

best of the sunshine further south and east you go. Looking ahead, it

will turn rather cloudier with outbreaks of rain. Head southwards,

its day's drive. The cloud will come and go and there will be some

sunshine. As we go through this weekend we will be reporting some