 Good afternoon, everyone, and the first item of business this afternoon is consideration of business motion 10468 in the name of Joe FitzPatrick, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, setting out a timetable for the stage 3 consideration of the Housing, Scotland bill. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press the request to speak buttern. As no member has asked to speak against the motion, therefore I will now put the question to the chamber. The question is that motion number 10468, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick, are we all agreed to? We are. We will now move to the next item of business, which is portfolio questions on education and lifelong learning. Question 1 from Mr Chick Brody. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to encourage college and university engagement with employers following the publication of the wood report on the commission for developing Scotland's young workers. I would just point out that I am in the process of losing my voice, so I am sure that people will be gentle with me this afternoon, surprising as that might be. The commission, Presiding Officer, has made a number of recommendations to facilitate increased levels of interaction between education and industry. The Government agrees that such partnerships are an essential element of a more effective vocational education system. I will consider the implementation of the recommendations carefully with Scotland's education community, including universities and colleges, with employers and, of course, with our partners in local government. Chick Brody, I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer. The skills plus survey 2014 of this month indicated that 85 per cent of employers recognise that they have a role to play in providing young people with work experience opportunities, yet only 8 per cent surveyed feel they are doing enough to do so. The survey also revealed that 55 per cent of employers believe that advanced apprenticeships would increase their participation and develop their workforce. Will the cabinet secretary initiate an immediate pilot on improved employer engagement with colleges and universities, as suggested by the survey? May I humbly suggest that that pilot be at Ayrshire College? I always recognise a piece of special pleading when I hear one, and of course I am sympathetic to Ayrshire College knowing Ayrshire very well. My colleague Angela Constance announced yesterday that the Government will provide a million pounds to support the establishment of regional industry-led invest in young people groups. Those will, as the name suggests, be led by industry. We will focus on establishing close links between employers and education, and we will seek to involve the principal education interests in each region. Colleges are a very important partner in that, particularly on their stronger regional footing. I know that Ayrshire College makes employer engagement with employers. A key element of its approach is a very strong employer-led board, which was highlighted in the commission's report. The college is always a willing and effective partner across a range of development activity, and as that work is taken forward, the Government will seek to engage directly with the college on its potential contribution in that part of Scotland. I give the member a qualified yes. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Scottish Funding Council regarding European regional development funding that was given to the Woodburn house site of the former Langside College. I acknowledge that the member has pursued this matter over a long period of time. I have to tell him that the Government is not in discussion with the Scottish Funding Council regarding the IRDF fund contribution to Woodburn house, but we are discussing what is a complex historic case with the European Commission before engaging with the Scottish Funding Council. As the cabinet secretary is aware, I first raised this in November last year. The cabinet secretary agreed to investigate in January, and since that time, Woodburn house has been demolished. Why is it taking so long to receive an answer? When will I receive an answer to this query? Does the issue of European regional development funding to educational establishments affect any other sites in Scotland? I am happy to write to the member in the detail of the case, but it remains a complex issue. It relates to the funding of Woodburn house to provide additional training facilities for the Western Scotland European regional development fund programme from 1997 to 1999, before the Parliament was in existence. There has been, and I recognise that the local member knows this and is representing the view, community reaction to the decision of the college to sell the land and the building for development. It is necessary for us, under the commission guidance in relation to article 24 of the council regulation number 208293, to look at the conditions for the reduction of suspension of assistance in operations where irregularities are significant changes affecting the nature of the conditions of the implementation of the operation have been detected during the programme. This is one of those issues. The question relates to whether any repayment would be due, and until we have that item settled, it is not possible to give the member a conclusive answer, but I do make a commitment to him because he has a strong interest in this and has taken it forward. We will make sure that he is kept informed, and if there is significant information, we will provide it to him. To ask the Scottish Government what strategic contribution education can make to improving regional economic activity. Education has a key role to play in improving regional economic activity, ensuring that all our young people can both contribute to and benefit from a strong economy. Our ambitions for economic growth will not be realised without a higher level of employment among young people. The Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce recognised this. Curriculum for Excellence, College of Form and the Modern Apprenticeship programme all provide a strong foundation from ensuring that young people are equipped with the skills for learning, life and work. The Cabinet Secretary for Training, Youth and Women's Employment welcomed the Wood Commission's landmark report, and yesterday he made a statement in which he committed to working in partnership to take forward its ambitious agenda. Hedin MacLeod. I thank the cabinet secretary for that comprehensive response. The cabinet secretary will be aware that Dumfries and Galloway has an unusually low level of qualifications within the workforce. In light of that, what strategic consideration is being given by the Government to improve the situation, working together in partnership with others at the local and national level and in light of the Wood Commission report? I recognise that fact as a former representative of the south of Scotland. I know that Dumfries and Galloway has an unusually low level of qualifications within the workforce. That is why, for example, there has been such significant investment in the Crichton site to make sure that there is a number of institutions of strength and significance in one place, building a real momentum. The Scottish Funding Council and the local authority education departments are working with colleges and schools in six early adopter regions for Wood, including Dumfries and Galloway, to increase the range and scale of vocational pathway opportunities for young people. We need to make sure that there is good partnership working, bringing in skills development in Scotland, making sure that there are more vocational options for young people, making sure that there is a focus on 10 subjects, and we need the strong, committed, principled, willing buy-in of the local authority to make that happen as well. Alex Rowley. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the estimated backlog of over £72 million for the necessary school repairs costs in Fife. As the member will be aware, the maintenance of school buildings is the statutory responsibility of local authorities in Scotland, as is defined by section 17 of the Education and Skills Act 1980. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. The vast majority of the funding, including any money for schools maintenance, is provided by means of a block grant. However, Fife Council was awarded £19.4 million to replace Ahmute High School, which opened in August 2013, and will be awarded a further £23 million to replace the existing Buckhaven and Kirkland High Schools over the next few years. Alex Rowley. I thank the minister for his answer. He will be aware that I asked the Scottish Government previously in a table question what the update was on the maintenance needs of the school estate right across Scotland. I have got a response saying that the Scottish Government does not hold this level of information. I have since contacted local authorities across Scotland and today I have heard responses from seven local authorities in tallying up what they have said is the maintenance needs of those seven authorities. That adds up to some £481 million. Does the minister not accept that our school estate right across Scotland is in dire need of investment and that there are many schools out there that need investment and need it now? Will he not accept some kind of responsibility and get into dialogue with the local authorities to look at what the maintenance needs are of our school estate right across Scotland? As the former council leader in the area concerned, he will be more than aware that it is the statutory responsibility of Fife Council to maintain its schools and has never been the responsibility legally of this or any previous Government under the 1980 act to maintain schools. What this Government has done, however, as I have just indicated, is fulfilled our ambitions when it comes to building, rebuilding and refurbishing schools. I have mentioned two in Fife, which I have had the pleasure of visiting, but the member cannot escape the responsibility of the council of which he was leader for the statutory responsibility for maintaining buildings. Annabelle Ewing, thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the minister confirm how much the Scottish Government has in fact invested in Scotland's schools for the future programme and that notwithstanding, of course, the swinging Westminster cuts that have been made to Scotland's budget? As I have indicated, the responsibility that the Government has is when it comes to rebuilding schools. That is a responsibility or a priority that we have fulfilled. The Government is investing £800 million into the £1.25 billion Scotland's schools for the future programme with the remainder coming from local authorities. 67 new schools will be built, the length and breadth of the country, for around 46,000 pupils, with at least one new school project in every local authority area, two in Fife, and all will be opened to pupils by March 2018. Patrick Harvie, to ask the Scottish Government when it will produce the final version of its guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood education and whether the right to be properly informed with the knowledge to make safe, healthy and positive choices will be an integral part of the document. We have received a wide range of responses to the engagement on the draft and will publish finalised guidance later this year. We fully recognise the importance of the guidance and we want to ensure that we strike the right balance. The majority of comments made in feedback were in relation to teachers, children and young people on issues of conscience and the parental right of withdrawal from specific lessons on sexual health education. These are issues in which strong opinions are held. It is important that time is taken to develop guidance that addresses those issues in a sensitive way. The evidence is pretty much globally accepted now. The good quality education about sex, sexuality, sexual health and emotional wellbeing is crucial to encouraging positive healthy choices amongst young people, as well as protecting young people from coercion, sexual abuse and exploitation. Does the Government accept the scale of the body of that global evidence? Will it commit to ensuring that that principle is followed through in relation to all young people in all schools, denominational and non-denominational? Will it agree to meet organisations with a specific interest, such as Barnardo Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland, before finalising the document? The Children and Young People Act does make a commitment to a legislative commitment to wellbeing, and I would say that, far from establishing good quality and high quality education in these matters, that is already established in Scotland and is under way. What we now need to do is to make sure that, as guidance changes in the light of legislative and societal changes, we do so in a consultative way that takes people with us, not in a confrontational way that loses people. I have always been willing to meet groups right across the spectrum, and I maintain that willingness. Patrick Harvie knows that I have met those groups before, and I will do so again. However, what we need to do is to make sure that we have, as much as possible, an agreed way forward, not a confrontational way forward. Question 6, John Finnie. To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it provides to local authorities for the education of gypsy travellers. The Scottish Government provides core funding to the Scottish Traveller Education programme, step whose roles include advice and support for both families and professionals. Within step's remit was the production of guidance for local authorities, schools and support services entitled Inclusive Education Approaches for Scotland's Travelling Communities within the context of Interrupted Learning. The guidance was published in March 2011 and disseminated through the Traveller Education Network, in which 22 Scottish local authorities are members, and the resource is now available online through Education Scotland. HMIE also produced a publication in 2005, which builds on self-evaluation guidance, given in How Good Is Our School, entitled Taking a Closer Look at Inclusion and Equality, Meeting the Needs of Gypsies and Travellers. That guide can be used by schools to evaluate the quality of their approaches to inclusion and the quality relating to gypsy travellers and to provide examples of best practice. I am grateful to the minister for that detailed response. The minister is aware of the level of disengagement that is with the educational process among the gypsy traveller community. That is particularly the case in secondary education, particularly in the case with young men. Will the minister look at ways of having contact with the gypsy traveller community to explore ways that would ensure that their lifestyle is supported by education rather than the education system excluding them? The member is right to point to the specific needs of the travelling community. Of course, the Scottish education system and curriculum for excellence is founded on the idea that all children, regardless of their ethnic group or background, have a right to an education that meets their needs of a system that is flexible enough to cope with their needs rather than demanding that they conform to the system. Institutions such as the Traveller Education Network have done a great deal to promote that further understanding and to ensure that we all listen to the very specific concerns at that community, quite rightly, make clear. Do you ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect from closure those schools classified as rural? The Government is committed to protecting rural schools, and that is why we have strengthened the Schools Consultation Scotland Act 2010 to establish more rigorous and specific requirements before a local authority may propose closing. We will also improve the arrangements for all-school closure proposals, requiring that those reach high standards of transparency and accuracy and protect schools from recurring closure consultations. Those changes will be brought into force on 1 August 2014. Minister, for that answer, in my constituency there are three such rural schools—Banton Primary School, Holy Cross Primary in Croy and Chapelgate Primary in Queenieburn. In a survey that I conducted in the villages, those three villages showed 92 per cent support for the policy of a presumption against closure rural schools. Does the minister share my disappointment then that Labour-run North Lancer council refused to back this policy going so far as to vote against a motion to support the policy that was laid by the SNP councils in North Lancer council? Well, while I cannot comment on the individual schools, as the member will appreciate, I share his disappointment that not everyone has shared this Government's commitment to ensuring that the legislation is strengthened. North Lancer must certainly explain its own position on that, but I believe and the Government believes that no rural school should be without the protection of the act. We certainly do not believe that no rural school should ever close, sometimes that is necessary, but it is important that education authorities demonstrate careful consideration before proposing a rural school closure at each stage. That leads to the decision that is based on an understanding of the needs of the community. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Scottish Funding Council and what issues were discussed. Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the Scottish Funding Council to discuss matters relating to universities and colleges. The last strategic liaison meeting between the Scottish Government and the SFC officials was on 27 May. In addition to that, I meet quarterly with both the chair and chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council to discuss strategic priorities and progress. The most recent meeting took place on 5 March with the next scheduled for 7 August. The cabinet secretary may be aware of five colleges' decision to replace the adult programme courses with a two-year community skills course. Concerns have been raised with me that, for more than 100 students who have additional support needs, who are currently benefiting from non-certificated courses, the new course will not meet their needs and will be excluded from college opportunities and the social and educational benefit that is bringing them. I ask the cabinet secretary what direction he gives to the Scottish Funding Council regarding educational opportunities for adults with additional support needs within the college sector. As he recognises that the reduction in non-certificated courses is having an adverse impact on people who have additional support needs. There are two parts to that question. I certainly believe that the college sector should be encouraged to work right across the community to provide opportunity for all who come to them. In those circumstances, those with additional needs require to be accommodated in colleges and supported by them. I do not agree with the second part of the question. I believe that certificated courses are vital and important for all those who come to colleges. The ways in which we can provide those opportunities, even those from the most distant from formal learning, is important. If the member has raised this issue with Fife College, I think that that would be the right thing to do in terms of talking to the principal and the chair of the board, both of whom are very open and approachable on all matters. Of course, she may also raise it formally with me, and I will raise it with the college if she gives me the details of the case. However, I know that Fife College, like all our colleges, is endeavouring to make sure that all young and older people in their area get given every opportunity, and I am sure that they are operating in that way. To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages the establishment of student associations and how many have been set up since the Post-16 Education Scotland Act 2013 came into force. Cabinet Secretary. Student associations are vital to ensuring that colleges and universities deliver the best possible experience for students. The Post-16 Education Scotland Act recognises the need for universities and colleges to have a student association that represents the interests of their student population. We continually seek opportunities to work with the Scottish Funding Council and NUS Scotland and other key stakeholders to ensure that a strong body of student associations exists right across Scotland. I thank the cabinet secretary for the answer. Can I ask what work has been done to ensure that every college has an efficient, democratic and active student association that is appropriately represented at bore level, as opposed to the situation in some instances pre-reform, where the student voice was one hand picked by management? It is a very good question, and a variety of actions are being undertaken. For example, two weeks ago I met Kelly Parry, the outgoing student president in Edinburgh College, to talk about a range of issues, including the wider representation across Scotland, to ensure that every college had a student association that was operating effectively. On Friday, at the young voters event, I met two student presidents, and I made a commitment to them. I offered, indeed, to meet all the student presidents at an appropriate time and to talk to them about the work that they are doing and the issues of concern to them, which included welfare cuts coming from Westminster. I am also very pleased that the post-16 education Scotland act made sure that it increased the number of student members in a college board from one to two. That increase has already happened in the 10 single college regions, and the increase will occur in other regions when the new regional arrangements are put in place, which is 1 August for Glasgow and the Highlands and Islands on 1 October for Lanarkshire. To ask the Scottish Government what importance it attaches to musical instrument tuition in schools. We attach great importance to instrumental music tuition in schools. In late 2012, we announced the setting up of an instrumental music group under the chairmanship of David Green. The group reported in June 2013 and made 17 recommendations, which were all accepted and fuller in part by the Government. In November 2013, we established the instrumental music implementation group under David Green, and that has been working hard to take forward the recommendations, including developing more support for local authorities. I thank the minister for that response and he will recognise as I do that musical skills are not the only thing that is required by instrumental skills but some very real social benefits as well. It seems to me that local authorities continue to find this to be an easy budget to prune, and I recognise their financial circumstances. Does the minister share my concern that we might be going back to a position where instrumental skills are those of the preserve of the rich? I certainly think that it would be very disappointing if any local authority to take that attitude, because there has in fact been a good degree of consensus between local authorities and the Government through David Green's activities to ensure that we do not create a situation or do not allow to maintain a situation in Scotland where musical instrumental tuition is the preserve of any one social group. It is also important that, for the first time, David Green has put together a national vision for musical instrumental tuition to ensure that we give the place that it deserves in our education system. It is also worth saying that, over the past 11 years, the Scottish Government has put £97 million into the youth music initiative, which is designed to ensure that instrumental music is available to the widest possible group of young people. I just ask the minister in terms of the new vision, which I welcome and, indeed, the recommendations from David Green. If it includes access to lessons in bagpipe tuition, given that some local authorities across Scotland offer bagpipes in every secondary school and other local authorities, it can be less than a quarter. The member will be pleased to know that I share her enthusiasm for bagpipes. The report does not specify individual musical instruments, but it does encourage local authorities to take cognisance of local musical traditions and to ensure that those are respected and promoted. I ask the minister if he would be willing to come to my constituency and look at a project that the local area committee set up around bagpipes in the primary schools. It is important that, if we are going to see bagpipes played and pipe bands continue to be part of Scotland's heritage and the community that we go to the primary schools and do it for there, I would very much welcome if he came and looked at the project. I am more than happy to take up that invitation. I would also like to take this opportunity to praise the schools bagpiping association and the other organisations that work with schools and young people in this area. Thank you, Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the application in schools of getting it right for every child for children who require additional support. Education Scotland monitors the application of getting it right for every child through its inspection programme. The current inspection framework, how good is our school? Three, includes a focus on the wellbeing indicators in QI 2.1, learners' experiences, as well as consideration of implementation of GIRFEC approaches through QI 5.3, meeting learning needs. Education Scotland is also supporting schools to develop a shared understanding of GIRFEC and to introduce the self-evaluation tool developed in partnership with the Scottish Government. The Implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act is monitored through routine inspection of schools. Further, Scottish ministers each year report to the Scottish Parliament on implementation of the act. The report to the Parliament reports annual statistics and practice information relating to additional support for learning. I have received concerns from parents of children with additional needs who feel that Aberdeen City Council, which has no autism strategy, is not getting it right for their children. Do the inspection bodies look at what is happening with the education of children with additional support needs when they carry out inspections? Are there any specific audits undertaken to analyse whether authorities are applying the GIRFEC principles to kids who have additional needs? Through inspection, Education Scotland places a priority to how well schools and services meet the needs of children with additional support needs, including consideration of how GIRFEC approaches are implemented. HM inspectors take account of the provision through their evaluation of quality indicators. All quality indicators have specific themes linked to additional support needs and those at risk of missing out. In every inspection, we are informed about the number of young people with additional support needs and the nature of their needs. Education Scotland also inspects special schools and units where all children and young people have additional support needs, including those with complex needs. Education Scotland also has resources available as part of our learning trials, and those are professional development packs that are used to meet the needs of specific groups of children, including those with autism. Of course, I am happy to meet and liaise with the member if he requires it to help with his constituents, because the E in GIRFEC stands for every. It is important that we ensure that every child in Scotland gets the support that they need. To ask the Scottish Government how it will address the attainment gap between girls and boys identified in the 2014 edition of the summary statistics for attainment, lever destinations and healthy living. Presiding Officer, the attainment of both boys and girls has risen significantly since 2007, though the gap between boys and girls remains. However, over the same period, the gap in positive destinations has narrowed from 3 per cent points in 2007 to 2.4 in 2012-13, a small but significant change. Together with all our partners, the Scottish Government shares a strong commitment to driving improvement and ensuring equity in attainment. That includes addressing any gender-based differences so that all our children and young people achieve their full potential. That is reflected in our key policies and programmes, including curriculum for excellence, teaching Scotland's future, getting it right for every child, the early years framework and opportunities for all. We are working to ensure that teachers and school leaders have the right skills and experience and the right numbers to deliver those improved outcomes for all children and young people. The range of integrated policies and programmes will help to realise our ambition of making Scotland the best place for all children to learn. Of course, the member will realise that only with the full powers of independence we will be truly able to do everything that we can to reduce poverty and finally close the attainment gap. Can I thank the cabinet secretary for that distressed response for which his fading voice might have been given a rest laterally? Disturbonally for the fifth consecutive year, the gulf in attainment between girls and boys has widened still further. Moreover, statistics released last week highlighted that, as a standalone ethnic group, as described, white Scottish males, were outperformed by all female ethnic groups and by every other male group with one exception. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will agree that, in the short run—never mind the medium and long—this is far from sustainable. So what does he intend to do about it other than a little dose of wishful thinking, which was his response a moment ago? The truth is true no matter how quietly it is set. The reality of the situation is that attainment is improving and continues to improve, but the radical improvement in attainment that we wish to see cannot come without the full powers of a normal Parliament. Labour members should be crying out against poverty, against the effects of poverty and the fact that how you do in school is often determined by where you come from. In order to eliminate that, what you need to do is to bear down a bound poverty. The Scottish Government has made considerable progress in closing the attainment gap with the tools that it has, but it needs all the tools to do the job, and no amount of shouting from either side will dispel that absolute truth. The cabinet secretary is right that attainment is improving, and it is improving for care leavers, but only at half the pace of all other schoolchildren. What specific work is he doing to improve the educational attainment of looked-after children across Scotland? There is some very good work being done, and the member will know that this has been a long and persistent problem in Scotland. It has been tackled in a number of different ways. I pay tribute, for example, to the work that City of Glasgow Council has done, working with a number of special projects to focus down upon individual children and help them to attain. It is that model that is increasingly being used in secondary schools across Scotland to take those people who have the biggest difficulties, who have the greatest barriers to learning, which are often looked after children, and to make sure that those are attended to. I spoke last week at the next stage of the Pathfinder project that is looking at closing the attainment gap. 100 secondary schools represent it, and I have visited three of the first six Pathfinders. I have seen in those schools an attention to data and detail dealing with individual young people, which transforms their outcomes, but also transforms the outcomes for the school. Those are exciting projects. I welcome the member having the opportunity to see them in action and to realise that by focusing on individual children, including looked-after children, there can be dramatic improvements and very fast improvements in performance. Thank you very much to the cabinet secretary. We are aware that there have been a number of reports recently in relation to closing the attainment gap. The authors of one of those reports chose a round-tree foundation that was met with the education committee earlier this week, as well as making it clear that, while funding is important, it is not sufficient, they pointed to the benefits of having Education Scotland focusing on, as part of the inspection regime, the performance of schools in closing the attainment gap and the benefits that would arise from taking a pupil premium approach similar to that south of the border. Are those two ideas that the cabinet secretary is open to? Education Scotland is already taking a focused approach. Education Scotland has been a key partner in the process of looking at improving schools and the improvement methodology and will continue to be so. I am glad that the member accepts my argument that resources are important, and the full resources that are likely to be available to the task could only come from this Parliament having full fiscal powers. To ask the Scottish Government how it is publicising to parents the expansion of childcare provision. The Scottish Government is developing public information materials to raise awareness of the increased funded hours of early learning in childcare and extended eligibility for vulnerable two-year-olds. Liz Smith. Thank you for the answer. Following yesterday's evidence session at the education committee, minister, you were not able to tell us just how many of the 3,440 cohort of vulnerable children from workless families will be guaranteed childcare from this August. I wonder if you could now put on record what that number is and when the Scottish Government expects the relevant information to be publicised to parents. As I said yesterday, in the committee, local authorities are making progress every day, and the picture of what is in place will continue to change and lead up to the implementation, but we know that they are working very hard, as are we in the Scottish Government, to make sure that this is a successful implementation of the expanded provision. It is important to remember, as I made the point yesterday, that the decision to delay the legal enforcement is to allow local authorities to be able to have that transitionary flexibility, but I wonder whether, with the continual negativity around the proposal, the Conservatives are against the expansion of childcare. Unstart contrast to their Conservative colleagues across local government—indeed, all parties across local government—are working very hard to ensure that this is a successful implementation of the childcare provision for the expansion that we announced in January. That will benefit children's lives and help families across the country, and we should all get behind this proposal to ensure that it is successfully implemented when it comes into force in August. To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning lasted to the Crichton campus in Dumfries in what was discussed. I visited the Crichton campus on 12 May to meet with staff and students of the University of West of Scotland. I also met Donald MacKinnon, who was relinquishing his post in the Crichton development company and wished him well. During my visit, I heard about the excellent work that everyone on the campus is doing as part of the unique, collaborative, successful academic partnership at the Crichton. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Does he agree with me that a student association serving the students of Dumfries and Galloway College, the University of West of Scotland and the University of Glasgow and Scotland's rural college would be an excellent way to take forward the joint working that he describes on the campus? I think that the member is absolutely right. I have been a very long-standing supporter of ensuring not only that there is a single student association on the site, which I think would be a very big step forward. I know that there is already a shared association, but also that they have premises to work from. It is really important on the Crichton site, which is a site that has the widest diversity of students, that they have somewhere that they can call their own and somewhere that they can use for social and other activities. I would be very keen for such a proposal to come forward. I do hope that the Scottish funding council might look sympathetically upon it, and I hope that the partner agencies in the Crichton would see that as a very important next step. To ask the Scottish Government what opportunities there are within the curriculum for excellence to study geology. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of geological and earth science study to the curriculum and to the Scottish economy. The curriculum for excellence framework enables young people to undertake earth science learning within the science and social studies curriculum areas. Learners will be able to develop an understanding of the formation, characteristics and uses of the earth's natural resources and landscape. The new national qualifications include aspects of earth science within chemistry, physics, geography, science and environmental science courses. Scotland is the country that produced the father of geology, James Hutton. There is a great tradition in the study of geology. Cabinet Secretary confirmed that a student unable to study geology at a higher level will still be able to take up geology at a further or higher education level by studying geography or other science subjects. I believe that I can offer that reassurance, because higher geology is not a mandatory requirement for entry into earth science courses at university, and higher than a range of subjects are used as a minimum entry requirement for those wishing to study geology. 16. Alex Ferguson To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Dumfries and Galloway Council's director of education and what matters were discussed. 17. Alex Ferguson Education and Science's area lead officer has regular meetings with the director of education. The area lead officer last met with the director of education on 1 May. This meeting arranged a range of topics that were discussed, including a tailored package of support, which will form part of the local partnership agreement between Dumfries and Galloway Council and Education Scotland. 18. Alex Ferguson I am grateful for that response. I would imagine both his officials and the DT himself will have had some discussions over the financing and siting of the proposed new education hub in Dumfries. I wonder if he would agree with me that it would be preferable for a full evaluation of alternative sites for the education hub to take place before any final decision is taken to locate it at the King George V playing field. I would agree with the member. I do believe that there are a number of potential sites, but in terms of making sure that there is no duplication, making sure that the resources of the college are fully utilised, making sure that, for example, academy participation in a potential students association, and given the past investment in the Crichton site, I do think that it is fairly extraordinary that that site seems to have been rejected already. I would urge the council to work with the Scottish Government in partnership, because we would like to see wood implementation taking place and Dumfries and Galloway as one of the pilot areas. I am sure that we could do so, and unfortunately a decision to spend money in a wasteful way would not help that matter. 18. Alex Ferguson That ends portfolio questions, and we now move to the next item of business, which is stage 3 proceedings on the Housing Scotland Bill.