Readers' Letters: Improving Scottish education isn't rocket science

Improving Scottish Education is very simple, if there is a will. An old schoolteacher of mine once said, “I have been teaching from the same book for the last 30 years, there is nothing I don’t know about my subject.” This is the root cause of the failing Scottish education system.

Reader believes they know how to make more Scottish schoolchildren into high fliers (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

It is fixable. Let’s consider how to improve reading. The education minister should note the best-performing education standards from leading Pisa ranking countries such as Singapore and China. Compare these to current education standards for Scotland. Identify the gaps and implement required improvements to the standards and integrate these changes into the school curriculum.

As for maths, the Pisa survey results are published every three years, it will take three years to implement the necessary standards and curriculum changes into schools and an additional three years to see improved rankings. In total, it will take six years to have an education system to make us all proud. During this period a new national teacher support structure and training plan can be introduced together with the implementation of a new curriculum pilot project named 21st Century Education, with 100 schools to test the new system.

For the science bit, many countries are heavily committed to increasing their Pisa rankings. Improving by just a few places can have a significant economic benefit. These countries know the importance of a strong ranking position as it demonstrates to transnational, future technology-focused organisations, which countries have a highly skilled young workforce and, as such, are a good place to invest and do business.

It is not rocket science, it is education science.

Stephen Tinsley, Aberdeen

Sturgeon tried

Brian Monteith is not being totally fair in his criticism of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP for our failing schools (Perspective, 11 December).

Some years ago, the London borough of Tower Hamlets made changes to its schools, mainly in admin, which helped propel those schools from near bottom of the London table to near top. Nicola Sturgeon went down to have a look – I gave her points for that. Then she appointed John Swinney, probably her only capable minister at that time, Education Minister. More points. He produced a plan, which was promptly thrown out by the unions and the educational establishment, so it died the death, to be replaced by Curriculum for [supposed] Excellence.

I was involved in the development by Moray House School of Education and Sport of a teacher training module. Often, soon into our meetings to discuss progress, we had to stop the expert and ask him to repeat but please to use normal English words. They live in a different world. The SNP’s problem is that they don’t have the conviction or presence to overcome this. The Tories in Westminster did it better, by working out their changes while in opposition, and then keeping their Schools Minister in place for ten years, until he had overcome this opposition, thus enabling Pisa scores down there to improve.

Adair Anderson, Selkirk, Scottish Borders

Bad old days

The headline in Monday’s Scotsman – “Kids come to school with no breakfast and holes in shoes” took me back to my early teaching days in the 1960s. On my salary at the bottom end of the lengthy scale of these days, I was the one who often went to school with holes in my shoes. In bad weather I cut makeshift insoles from cardboard to offer some minimal protection. Unlike many of my more senior colleagues, I never sat on my high teacher’s chair with feet perched on my desk lest my secret be revealed to my pupils. I vividly recall, when I taught in Glasgow’s east end, one of the pupils, on being asked why he had been absent in the morning, replied: “It was ma faither’s turn for the shoes.”

So, what was different in these days? My suspicion is that most of the population were more or less in the same boat and the wide gaps in prosperity we see today were less apparent. Today, there are commercial pressures on us to acquire everything we think we need whereas I was brought up without expectations and was content with whatever my parents could afford to provide. Now, TV adverts in particular seem to focus on people who can afford every new gadget, new cars, expensive holidays and luxury goods. Consequently, the genuinely poor are looking at what seems an unsurmountable gap between their lifestyle and the rest. I do not seek to diminish their predicament, which is exacerbated by such circumstances.

At least, I always had breakfast before going out to teach.

William Greenock, Netherlee, East Renfrewshire

Breach of trust

When he met Turkish President Erdogan at the COP23 Summit in Dubai last week Humza Yousaf breached long-established devolution protocols, which prompted UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron to send a blunt reminder, via SNP “Foreign Affairs” Minister Angus Robertson, that the Foreign Office was given insufficient notice for a representative to attend alongside the First Minister. Despite his protests that the FO had been notified but nobody turned up at the time, this has seriously angered David Cameron to the extent that he warned he would withdraw further cooperation if “any further breaches occurred”. If any nationalist claims Westminster bullying, they’re wrong. This is about a serious breach of trust.

Yousaf cannot claim ignorance. He’s a repeat offender, having met with Iceland's Prime Minister and subsequently being warned by the then FM James Cleverly. The First Minister’s remit is entirely and only within Scotland.

Cameron, reasonably, points out that "it's critical that the UK presents a consistent message to our international partners… we must ensure that UK foreign policy... is coherent and that we speak with one voice to the international community."

Like Sturgeon before him, Yousaf would rather do something a bit more exciting than actually getting down to doing his day job.

Cameron has also threatened to close down the SNP's “mini-embassies” abroad because of the Erdogan meeting. Predictably, like a schoolboy caught playing truant, Yousaf called Cameron “petty and misguided” for his threats to close the mini-embassies, which were set up by Nicola Sturgeon several years' ago. These mini-embassies, or Scotland Houses, are located in Washington, Beijing, Ottowa, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Dublin, London and Copenhagen at an annual upkeep cost of around £13 million, thus increasing the nation’s ever-spiralling National Debt and deficit . Why on earth Sturgeon did this is beyond me when the United Kingdom already has global trade offices, promoting Scottish, English, Welsh and Northern Irish goods and services.

The whole incident depressingly confirms that the current Scottish leadership is absolutely not fit for purpose.

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Both ways

Compare Rishi Sunak’s evidence to the Covid Inquiry this week with Nicola Sturgeon’s evidence session at the Holyrood Inquiry into Alex Salmond. Asked about a debate which took place in 2020 about going into lockdown, Sunak said he could not recall it. An incredulous counsel to the Inquiry asked if he was seriously saying he could not remember discussing what counsel himself described as “one of the most momentous decisions in British history”. He reaffirmed he couldn’t.

Like Johnson last week, there were many instances when Sunak was unable to elaborate on what had been discussed, agreed or actioned just three years ago. And when challenged about the lack of detail to the answers he did give, he opined that it would be impossible to keep a record of every conversation he had at the time. Counsel was left probing his memory of events which had mysteriously deserted him in the intervening period.

Now compare that to the allegations of lying Sturgeon faced when saying she had forgotten one short meeting in the Scottish Parliament in 2018. She was even accused of misleading Parliament. And it was the Conservatives who were in the vanguard when alleging her claim was risible. So will there now be an apology on offer to Sturgeon given that their own leader has been caught in the recollection headlights? Somehow I don’t think so.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

1922 rules

Are we to believe Rishi Sunak suddenly decided to dismiss Suella Braverman, after publicly supporting her? Of course not! The Tories are able to read polls as well as anyone, and they are acutely aware that with the current parliamentary leadership in place, they face absolute meltdown at the next General Election – to such an extent that they may not even be ranked as the official opposition.

But it is not Sunak who leads the Tories – Sunak has most likely been told by the 1922 Committee that Braverman had to go and that Cameron would step in – and, believe you me, that Cameron/1922 conversation did not take place yesterday.

The 1922 Committee have known for some time (based on their own and external polls) that Braverman, Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, Jacob Rees-Mogg etc are highly toxic to both core Conservative voters and also swing voters they would hope to attract. They have already kissed the “Red Wall” voters who switched to the Tories at the last election goodbye – Cameron has been brought in to try to hold the core Tory vote, and avoid an electoral wipeout. It is not beyond the possible that it will be Cameron who leads the Tories into the next election, if only in survival mode – electoral annihilation seems to be the alternative.

Anthony Black, Crossford, Fife

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