Readers' Letters: Scotland's educational problems hit crisis point

Finally, three core Scottish education problems are headline news. Reform Scotland’s shocking report on school non-attendance and SNP Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth’s summit on pupil behaviour and violence are in most papers, and on BBC Debate Night, Conservative MSP Brian Whittle and former SNP MSP Joan McAlpine combined to condemn the sinister sex education being practised and the inability of parents to find out what’s going on.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has a lot on her plate, reckons reader (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Scotland’s disastrous education genies are at last prising themselves out of the bottle and opposition parties need to spell out their solutions, win the votes of around a million angry parents and grandparents and get the SNP out.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Educated guesses

Regarding Cameron Wyllie’s latest article (Perspective, 25 October), it’s no secret that under 14 years of SNP government Scottish education standards have plummeted. The politician’s solution is, unfailingly, to come up with a dynamically titled hairbrained scheme such as establishing a “Centre of Teaching Excellence.” Problem solved? In panto terms, “Oh no it’s not.” Having had her lightbulb moment, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth didn’t think to run it past the Educational Institute of Scotland.

Here’s how far Scottish education standards have fallen: Before my parents moved to Kent in 1952, I went to Jordanhill College School Glasgow. In England went to Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar school. In 1956 my Dad went back to Scotland on a six-month posting. Now 16, I went back to JCS, where I was put into my old class, among my old classmates. To my eternal shame, after only three weeks I was told they were dropping me down a year. It is this high-quality education which Scottish schools were renowned for which, one way or another, has been hugely eroded.

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Blame game

There is a consensus that Scottish education isn't as good as it should be. So Andrew Docherty (Letters, 25 October) is unwise to adopt the pedagogic role of a standard grade teacher when he gives us his nationalistic views about the causes of the Darien scheme and the generosity of the Barnett formula.

Blaming England for the first is like doing the same for another home-grown Scottish financial disaster, the antics of Fred “the Shred” Goodwin and the fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The events that led to both catastrophes had strong political support, the former from the Scottish Parliament, and the latter from the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

As for the generosity of the Barnett formula, all that I can say is that as a worker in the NHS I saw the benefits that came from the Barnett consequentials that came to Scotland when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown massively increased NHS spending south of the Border to European levels. So much money came to Scotland that not all of it was spent on the NHS.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Making ourselves ill

Hardly a day passes without some reference to the need for additional funding for our world-renowned National Health Service. Certainly this subject is yet another poke at Westminster regarding holes in funding right across the board, for the vast expenditure to be covered each year from taxation and borrowing.

However, shouldn’t society as a whole take a critical look at how we might actually help the NHS with actions that reduce the need for expensive interventions by this service? Specifically, we could actively reduce obesity with the quite simple steps of taking more exercise and actually reducing the dependence on prepared foods and reliance on fast food.

The Scotsman (24 October) highlighted that obesity-linked diseases have rocketed in recent years and lifestyle choices certainly haven’t helped with this matter.

The bottom line, of course, is that in our society there is little support for the idea that we might be the cause of a great many of the health problems dealt with by the NHS and that they could be solved by a change in our lifestyle choices.

Government doesn’t help, afraid to upset voters by telling it like it is, and then there is the current belief that our lifestyle is up to us regardless of the consequences.

T Lewis, Coylton, Ayrshire

Help for health

“Lessons will be learnt.” I don't think so. Health Secretary Michael Matheson’s winter resilience plan will allocate an extra £50 million to the Scottish Ambulance Service and up to £12m to expand Hospital at Home services.

£50m is not going to free up beds in hospitals. It would be more efficient to allocate that amount to the Hospital at Home scheme and the £12m to the Ambulance Service. An efficient Hospital at Home service and home visits by members of the Medicine of the Elderly team have been shown to keep elderly patients out of hospital.

(Dr) Roger G Smith, Edinburgh

Power plays

Doug Clark (Letters, 24 October) makes the lazy assertion that religion is to blame for violence and wars throughout history. This accusation is simplistic and naive.

Wars are not fought for God but invariably for power and wealth. Men are conned or forced into fighting each other by elites using race, religion or nationalism as their justification. There can be little hope of peace on Earth until we can all see through this induced hatred and bigotry.

James Quinn, Lanark

Grasp the nettle

Humza Yousaf received much flak from council leaders when he imposed a council tax freeze for next year which will lead to reduced public spending and cuts in services. However, in no way can the swingeing increases in the higher bands of council tax which had been planned and then abandoned be termed “reforms”, as they have been referred to, when council tax bands have been based on assessments made in 1991. Home ownership has vastly changed since then and no one in government seems willing to grasp the nettle and truly reform local authority taxation to provide a system which is fairer and more just.

Kicking the can down the road each year should not be an option, but no politician seems brave enough to initiate the reform process.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

MAD world

Marjorie Ellis Thompson makes a very good point (Letters, 26 October) about the huge tonnage of bombs that has been dropped on various unfortunate populations from the Second World War onwards. Having lost an uncle who was fire-watching during the London Blitz, and had a mother who was almost blown to smithereens by a V-2, my family have first-hand knowledge of the awfulness of such conventional weaponry.

History confirms that getting rid of one’s nuclear defences, being neutral, or not investing in a sound defence to ensure peace, is utterly naïve. Belgium, Denmark and Norway demonstrate that. As President Teddy Roosevelt said, “speak softly and carry a big stick”. This epitomises the position of the USA, the UK and France, which is why we – and the other nations in Europe – can shelter under our nuclear umbrella, safe in the knowledge that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is as good a disincentive to an enemy launching nuclear missiles at us, or attempting to launch a major convention attack against us either, as we can ever hope for.

If the Russians (or anyone else) attack us with nuclear weapons, we will reciprocate and they will also fry. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by attacking an alliance which can ensure that you will die if you do so. That policy has served us well for more than 70 years, which is why Ms Thompson can sleep soundly at night.

Not so Ukraine, which was one of the leading nuclear powers in Europe 30 years ago, but gave up its nukes when Russia and the west guaranteed its territorial integrity. Now that it has no nukes, it has hundreds of thousands of Russians trying to conquer it. QED.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Poor defence

The Internet Watch Foundation has issued a press release saying it has just discovered that AI is being used to produce child porn in the image of celebrities – what users of DeviantArt, ArtStation, Tumblr, Behance and every other internet art platform have been complaining loudly about for over a year now.

They have been roundly ignored.

If this is how “quick” the self-appointed guardians of internet decency spot what's been in plain sight since 2022, its high time the EU Safer Internet Programme, the UK Safer Internet Centre, Nominet and all other IWF sponsors reconsidered whether their money could be better spent on more practical solutions.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Windy cities

In his latest push for renewables (25 October) Dr Richard Dixon says 114 windmills off the coast of Angus will provide enough power for 1.6 million homes. As there are 2.7m homes in Scotland, another 79 similar-sized machines would therefore serve us all, provided the wind blows and home demand is level.

Yet there are 19,000 here already and more planned. Granted we need more for our industrial and public base, but surely not another 18,800 of them. If Dr Dixon is correct we have overdone things on the windmill front.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross

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