Concerns at Higher course cuts

Published on Sunday 5 April 2009 22:18

HUNDREDS of courses have been scrapped at schools around the country in recent years, it emerged yesterday.

Figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives show that some 289 Higher and Advanced Higher courses have been cut since 2006.

Education secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday faced calls from the party to take action to reverse the trend.

Liz Smith, the Tory education spokeswoman, said: "It is totally unacceptable that the career choices of many of our pupils are being compromised because they cannot choose the subjects they need."

The courses cut since 2006 include 172 at Advanced Higher and 117 at Higher and cover 25 of the country's 32 councils.

They also show that 18 schools in Scotland have cut four or more Advanced Higher courses and seven schools have cut four or more Higher courses – including in more mainstream subject areas such as maths and history.

Ms Smith said the cuts have come despite pledges by the SNP to "deliver more opportunities for Scots to succeed" and to "place science, modern languages and technology at the heart of education" in their election manifesto.

She said: "We must reverse this worrying trend.

"I hope that more schools will work together to extend the range of courses and that state schools and independent schools will work together to give as many pupils as possible as many choices as reasonable."

But a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Figures from SQA show that uptake has steadily increased with 137,324 pupils studying Higher courses in this session compared to 134, 030 in 2006; and 15,504 studying Advanced Highers, compared to 15,245 in 2006."