Hugh Reilly: Bog standard stupidity from reform boffins

Published on Tuesday 10 January 2012 12:14

IN THE US, controversial Republican media pundit Glenn Beck caused outrage when he accused President Barack Obama of being a racist who had “a deep-seated hatred of white culture”. When CBS interviewer Katie Couric pressed him to explain what he meant by white culture, Beck’s previous eloquence morphed into rambling incoherence.

Last week, Ross Martin, advisor to the Commission for School Reform, called for an end to “the bog standard comprehensive”. If Katie Couric were to ask Scotland’s own Glenn Beck to explain what constitutes a bog standard comprehensive, I am certain Mr Martin’s response would make less sense than The Flowerpot Men.

The attacks on state education by Reform Scotland – the puppeteers who set up the Commission for School Reform and provide the financial strings that move Ross Martin’s lips – are becoming a tad tiresome. For a so-called think-tank, it never appears to reflect on the reasons why its pronouncements are taken as seriously as a picture of Ed Miliband appearing on the front page of The Economist under the headline “Great Leaders of Our Time”.

In my opinion, when it comes to finding a bog standard comprehensive, one is more likely to stumble across Sasquatch and a Yeti drinking cappuccinos in a tearoom.

In a teaching career spanning three decades, I can honestly say that no two schools were the same. In the Eighties, at my first school, St Ninian’s, Kirkintilloch, the children of a bank manager sat alongside the kids of parents made unemployed by Thatcher’s slash-and-burn assaults on mining and steelmaking.

In the Nineties, at Kingsridge Secondary in deprived Drumchapel, the children of single mothers sat next to the kids of a dad who’d robbed the bank manager in Kirkintilloch.

Perhaps Mr Martin’s bog standard school is Govan High, a secondary with just over 200 pupils, many of whom study vocational subjects at nearby colleges.

Or he may have had Glasgow’s Holyrood Secondary in mind, the largest school in Europe with a roll of more than 2,000 youngsters. Or his bog standard education establishment may be the sort found in Moffat where nursery, primary and secondary education is provided on a single site.

Admittedly, I don’t make up the rules, but having a Communicative Disorder Unit that allows pupils with autism and Asperger’s syndrome to attend mainstream classes may be the reason why Bannerman High School struggles to achieve bog standard status.

It could be that the non-teaching boffins at Reform Scotland believe that kids study identical subjects at every school. However, even a cursory glance at the SQA results for 2011 would glean the fact that subjects such as Mandarin hold some appeal in our schools. In secondary schools with significant numbers of Asian children, Urdu is often on the curriculum (Shawlands Academy has three Higher Urdu classes).

To its credit, Glasgow City Council has embraced the notion of specialist schools. For example, Knightswood secondary incorporates the Dance School of Scotland and the Glasgow School of Sport is based at Bellahouston Academy.

Some state sector schools present pupils for baccalaureate examinations – others don’t. Headteachers have been free for many years to make changes to the curriculum as they see fit and, in recent times, headmasters in various local authorities have given the green light for S3 students to sit Standard Grade final exams.

In stark contrast, other rectors have ditched Standard Grade, replacing it with Intermediate courses. In a few free-spirited schools, liberated department heads decide which type of examination candidates sit.

While studying the outdated nonsense of Reform Scotland’s education initiatives is undoubtedly of great interest to social historians endeavouring to capture the zeitgeist of the Sixties comprehensive debate, the think-tank should spend its energies and spondulicks on lobbying the government to provide more resources to those schools serving areas of multiple deprivation.

To me, the education attainment gap separating rich and poor children is a source of national embarrassment. Ironically, if all schools were bog standard, these disparities of achievement would be a thing of the past.

The concept of bog standard comprehensives has less integrity than lavatory humour.

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florian albert

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:46 PM

At Kingsridge, the single mother's child and the bank robber's child sat side by side. Ho ho Ho. When George Kerevan went to Kingsidge, the teachers would not have demeaned their pupils with such a comment. ( It has closed down so you can get away with it.) Mr Martin does not speak of bog standard 'schools' but 'comprehensives.' From Hugh Reilly's description, Govan High is a Junior Secondary, though you can't call it that. The cry for resources wont do. When leader of Glasgow Council, Steven Purcell said that local authorities were 'awash with money'. More money, as happened in 2001 with the McCrone deal, tends to mean higher salaries for teachers while the level of attainment in poor areas is unchanged. Next week, Hugh Reilly can tell us about the children of fellow teachers in his classes in Kingsridge.

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Sawney Has-Been

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 05:44 AM

Mr Martin has been in the longest huff in Scottish Educational history after the Millenium Review rejection by 97% of teachers. He then proceeded to fail to win a seat in Falkirk West - one of the safest Labour seats ever - despite total party support and a series of internecine maneuvers that would have made the Borgias blush. Let it go Ross! Move on in life! In fact, get a life! You're like a wee one man Daily McMail.

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samcoldstream

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:22 AM

Instead of attacking bog standard comprehensive education we have bog standard public school lobbyists and unemployed party apparatchiks suddenly deciding to form an alleged think tank which is nothing more than a bog standard pressure group for the Scots Tory Party. As someone pointed out yesterday, there are more Pandas in Scotland which are more popular than Scots Tory MPs!

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No Jambos

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:19 AM

Why does anyone listen to Ross Martin? He set up this organisation, was the chief executive then policy adviser. Thinks up this School Reform Commission and appoints himself the main adviser. Very Good. Where are Lyndsay Paterson etc? Martin has been teacher bashing in his TES articles for decades. Obviously an expert due to his vast experience as a supply teacher! What about the £18000 his other organisation got from Eric Joyce's expenses.

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CauchyRiemann

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 09:27 AM

There are two problems with the word 'bog standard'. It is a pejorative, and it means different things to different people. Strictly speaking 'bog standard' has the idea of 'being ordinary'. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. My PC, my car are all 'bog standard' - perfectly ordinary. I'm not interested in the fastest PC or car. The author of this article interprets the word 'bog standard' in a way I wouldn't. He is probably interpreting the word very differently from the guy he is criticising. If you remove streaming from education, then you get a scenario where some pupils become bored because the teaching of a particular subject has to go at such a rate that those with less interest or ability can keep up. This is 'bog standard'. There is no real stretching of potential for those having an affinity towards a certain thing.

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