Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) was an executive agency of the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

, responsible for the inspection of

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and private, primary and secondary

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

s, as well as further education

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

s, community learning, Local Authority Education Departments and teacher education. HMIe and Learning and Teaching Scotland were merged in 2011 to create Education Scotland.

History

The first HM Inspector of Schools (HMI) was appointed in 1840. The rationale for the first appointments of HMI linked inspection to "the improvement of elementary education" and charged HMI to say "what improvements in the apparatus and internal management of schools, in school management and discipline, and in the methods of teaching have been sanctioned by the most extensive experience". The particular focus in Scotland on combining inspection with self-evaluation has been central to the drive to raise educational standards. HMIe was headed by Her Majesty's Senior Chief Inspector of Education. Its remit was far wider than its English counterpart, the Office for Standards in Education. HMIe's equivalent in Wales, Estyn, had a similar remit, including adult education. Following the Scotland Act 1998 the Inspectorate was made an Executive Agency of the

in 2001, and HMIe was answerable to the Scottish Ministers for the running of the Inspectorate and the whole inspection system in Scotland. In 2003 it employed 178 staff who were based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Inverness,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. A policy to disperse public sector jobs then led to the relocation of the headquarters from Edinburgh to Livingston, West Lothian along with the opening of new offices in Dunbartonshire and Ayrshire. On 14 October 2010 the Cabinet Secretary for Education announced that HMIe would be brigaded with Learning and Teaching Scotland into a new executive agency of the Scottish Government to be known as the ''Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency''. This was later renamed Education Scotland, and came into existence on 30 June 2011. Senior Chief Inspector 1999 to 2002: Douglas Osler
Senior Chief Inspector 2002 to 2009: Graham Donaldson
Senior Chief Inspector 2010 to 2017: Dr Bill Maxwell
Senior Chief Inspector from December 2017: Gayle Gorman

Remit

HMIe was charged with inspecting the quality of education in pre-school centres,

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s, special schools, community learning and development, further education colleges, initial teacher education, residential educational provision and the education functions of local authorities and services for children. Following the passing of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. 2000 Act the focus of HMIe shifted to how this legislation is being implemented. It brought new statutory powers to inspect the education functions of local authorities.

References

External links

* {{authority control Education in Scotland Education regulation in the United Kingdom Educational administration Executive agencies of the Scottish Government Public bodies of the Scottish Government 1840 establishments in Scotland Organisations based in West Lothian

History

Remit

See also

References

External links