Reformers got it all wrong

This is nothing new to teachers, We have seen it coming for years. I wrote article after article in the 1960s, 70s and 80s warning against the growing tide of political interference in education and the dire consequences thereof.

Our political bosses - mainly of a left-wing or liberal persuasion - decided in the post-war years that reforms of the Scottish education system were necessary to give all Scottish children an equal chance of a sound education. To this end they started the tinkering with the system, which began with O-grades and the introduction of comprehensive schools and continues to this day.

The aim was to help the underprivileged gain access to the excellent educational opportunities once available to Scottish children - primary and senior secondary schools second to none and universities turning out graduates with degrees respected and valued all over the world.

The root of the problem is that the reformers threw out the baby with the bathwater. No education system is perfect and Scotland’s in 1945 was no exception, but it was based on sound principles. The selection process which directed some children, at the age of 12, into senior secondaries and others into junior secondaries was a possible target for improvement, but the sweeping, ham-fisted way in which the reformers went about changing the system eventually brought about the complete destruction of the best of what we once had and the reduction of the remainder to less than mediocre.

The attempt to impose complete equality on human beings where equality does not exist has been an abysmal failure. Not only were all secondary pupils sent to the same schools, but they were forced to sit in the same classes for the same subjects, with almost the entire range of intelligence and talent to be found in each class.

Streaming or setting according to ability and progress was outlawed.

The new watchword was group teaching, not in groups of 30 but the nightmarish scenario of six or more small groups in each class.

The abolition of corporal punishment without a long transition period to give teachers an opportunity to replace it with suitable alternatives has been a disaster.

The resulting collapse of discipline and the problems of mixed ability classes entailed a rapid fall in standards. Pupils were no longer able to cope as well as they had in the past.

In an attempt to solve the growing problems of discipline and falling standards, our increasingly desperate bureaucrats have introduced initiative after initiative - new courses, new examinations, new methods, new standards (always lower than the last) - all to no avail. Our schools have just gone from bad to worse.

They are even managing now to go full circle to try to pass off to us as new old, well-tried methods such as teachers instructing and demonstrating from the front of the class and primary schoolchildren learning to read the letters first, then forming words.

Headmasters are being appointed for all the wrong reasons, foremost among them a willingness to go along with the flawed ideas which have plagued Scottish education since 1945. The ability to lead children and staff and to run a successful and orderly establishment seems to be low on the list of priorities.

It is no wonder that there is a crisis in staffing. It amazes me that there are still young people out there willing to enter the teaching profession at all.

I certainly would not entertain the idea if I were on the threshold of my career now. Subject myself to the kind of classroom chaos which confronts teachers nowadays?

Put myself in the position of dealing with rowdy, lazy pupils every day with no effective methods of discipline and little or no backing from the management, and where teachers find themselves on an equal or, as is more likely, an even lower footing in comparison with pupils and their parents? Not likely.

There is no use in Peter Peacock, the education minister, pretending once more that everything is under control and that matters will improve. They won’t, until something really radical is done. I suggest he issue an invitation to a group of a retired headmasters of the old school - those who were in charge before it all went completely pear-shaped and who subscribed to traditional methods of organisation, education and discipline.

With their help, it might be possible to restore sanity to the system and rescue Scottish education from final humiliation and destruction.

Short of some such radical step, there’s no hope for us or our young people. And new teachers? You can whistle for them, Mr Peacock.

George K McMillan is a Former Assistant Rector of Perth Academy