Academy lesson

I am sorry for the Scottish Government education spokesman, who is apparently under instruction from the education minister, Michael Russell, to say that any educational initiative in any part of Scotland "reflects the principles of the Curriculum for Excellence".

This is manifestly untrue of the experiment at Kirkcudbright Academy (your report, 6 May) involving pupils choosing specialist subjects at the end of their S1 year and sitting Standard Grade examinations in these subjects in S3, rather than S4.

The Curriculum for Excellence builds on accepted practice in the primary schools such as cross-curricular approaches and individual, pupil-centred learning.

These principles are extremely difficult to apply in the secondary sector and there is little support among secondary teachers for them, albeit that some of the opposition has been channelled into a predictable campaign for delay in implementation of the new curriculum and the provision of support materials as well as additional teacher development time.

There is particular difficulty in reconciling the new curriculum with the established subject-based approaches in secondary education and with the arrangement as for external examinations conducted by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. This for independent verification of pupil attainment.

I suggest that the way forward is to implement the new curriculum in primary schools but to delay implementation at secondary level until the new curriculum ethos can be reconciled with subject-based teaching and external examinations.

The Kirkcudbright Academy experiment shows the way forward, deals with some of the problems over Standard Grade examinations in S4 and should be widely adopted in Scottish secondary education.

FRED FORRESTER

North Larches

Dunfermline