National Improvement Framework plan 2025: update on activity
Sets out progress on existing actions from the 2025 National Improvement Framework and improvement plan from across the education and skills landscape.
Outcome 7
Outcome 7 – an education system engaging in digital technology to enhance all aspects of learning and teaching, supported by a digitally-skilled workforce, and tackling digital inequality.
Action
7/1
We are currently developing a new digital strategy for school education in Scotland, in partnership with COSLA and key education stakeholders. The strategy will outline the important role we believe digital tools and services play in the future of Scottish education and will highlight the key features of successful technology provision. It will consider both people and technology aspects of digital education in Scotland to help support deployment and purposeful use of technology in Scotland’s schools. We continue to work with partners on development of this strategy and an initial high level document and roadmap is due for publication in 2025.
Current position
Ongoing
We continue to work with stakeholders to define this work, and publication will now be in 2026.
How we will measure impact
We will seek to gather more detailed information about all aspects of technology in our schools to establish a baseline to measure future progress against.
Action
7/2
The Scottish Government is committed to investing £10m for enhanced digital provision during the 25/26 financial year.
Current position
Ongoing
We are currently exploring the delivery mechanism for £10m capital device provision.
How we will measure impact
Dependent on the delivery mechanism. Monitoring and evaluation will be agreed as part of process.
Action
7/3
The Scottish Government will work with Qualifications Scotland, HMIE and Education Scotland within the context of Scotland’s AI Strategy and the work of the Scottish AI Alliance to ensure that AI can be used effectively and safely in learning, teaching and assessment.
Current position
Ongoing
We are working with unions and local government to develop guardrails for the safe and ethical use of AI in Scotland's schools.
How we will measure impact
An approach to monitoring and evaluation will be included in the Digital Education Strategy. The CfTE is also committed to examining practice in this area.
Action
7/4
Education Scotland will deliver three ‘thematic weeks’ on digital learning and teaching, covering ‘digital literacy week’, ‘computing science week’ and ‘AI in schools’.
Current position
Complete
In session 2024/2025 we hosted 4 themed weeks - AI in Schools (16 sessions with 10953 learners, 1038 educators in 342 schools), Comp Science week - (22 sessions with 10727 learners, 645 educators in 515 schools), Cyber week(13 sessions with 4080 learners, 413 educators in 183 schools), Digital literacy week(14 sessions with 1025 learners, 208 educators in 60 schools).
Next steps: In 2025/2026 we will be hosting/taking part in 9 themed weeks: Scottish Games Fest, Computing Science week, Live lesson week, Cyber Scotland Week, Scottish AI in Schools week, Digital Creators week, Live lessons: reloaded, SG Innovation week, ADA.Scot festival.
How we will measure impact
Education Scotland will monitor the delivery of thematic weeks, ensuring that all three take place as planned, while recording the number of sessions, workshops, webinars, and resources offered during each week. Participation will be tracked across schools, local authorities, and regions to demonstrate geographic coverage across Scotland, alongside representation from teachers, leaders, learners, parents, Community Learning and Development (CLD), and the Third Sector. Learner engagement will be measured through the number of students taking part in live lessons, and pre- and post-event surveys will assess changes in confidence in digital literacy, computing science, and artificial intelligence.
Action
7/5
Education Scotland will work with local authorities to develop options for the future of the Glow.
Current position
Closed - action merged with 7/6
Action
7/6
Education Scotland will continue to evolve the existing Glow service, working with local authorities, including a focus on AI tools.
Current position
Ongoing
Glow usage numbers remain stable overall.
An AI pilot has completed successfully with 2 local authorities and next steps are now being considered.
How we will measure impact
Education Scotland will monitor Glow’s development and impact by tracking the number of local authorities actively engaged in discussions about its future, alongside gathering survey data from teachers, learners, and administrators on usability and effectiveness. Feedback from local authorities will be used to assess how responsive Glow is to their needs, while adoption rates will be measured through the percentage of schools and educators using AI-enabled features. Evidence will be collected to ensure Glow continues to provide equitable access across Scotland, with particular attention to improvements in student engagement, digital literacy, and attainment linked to its use. A clear roadmap will outline Glow’s future direction, including milestones for AI integration, and overall usage will be monitored to confirm consistency, with approximately 375,000 unique monthly users demonstrating sustained engagement.
Action
7/7
The Curriculum Improvement Cycle will provide an opportunity to ensure that young people are being offered a curriculum that allows them to develop a range of digital skills including an understanding of emerging technologies.
Current position
Ongoing
The Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) work is underway in respect of technologies. This objective also relates to CIC work on digital literacy, political literacy and health and wellbeing.
How we will measure impact
The Scottish Government has commissioned work to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy which will propose a structured approach to systematically monitor progress and evaluate the impact of Curriculum, Qualifications and Assessment reform project (as well as the wider Education Reform Programme) over time. This project includes the development of a theory of change model, data mapping and an evaluability assessment.
Action
7/8
HMIE will ensure all new inspection frameworks take sufficient account of digital technologies to support its positive impact on the delivery of high quality education and successful outcomes for all learners.
Current position
Closed - superseded by new action in the Improvement Plan
The new Quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors was launched on 18 September 2025. There is a strong focus on digital literacy within the following new quality indicators: curriculum; learning, teaching and assessment; and wellbeing, inclusion and equality. The framework focuses on digital skills being embedded across the curriculum enabling children to explore, create and connect with the world beyond their immediate experience. It focuses the highly effective use of digital technologies to enrich children's learning and teaching, supporting children to learning about and use a wide variety of technologies in safe and creative ways. It also focuses on the use of digital technology to reduce barriers to inclusion and learning.
In schools, HMIE continue to focus the impact of digital technology when evaluating the quality of learning, teaching and assessment.
How we will measure impact
We will use the evidence from HMIE inspections to assess the impact that digital technology is having on the quality of education. During session 2025-26, this will be reported through QI2.3, learning, teaching and assessment from HGIOS4.