IT appears that the Scottish Government would have us believe that it can eliminate educational disadvantage by simply legislating it away ("Education inequality warning", The Herald, March 25).
The Education Secretary's draft bill which apparently seeks to do just that must be regarded as merely a distraction which, in a UK General Election year, seeks to help establish the SNP's apparent commitment to social justice. However, no-one should be fooled by such a ploy.
In reality Angela Constance's party have already severely mauled the very sector which is most able to make a major contribution to achieving this objective.
Colleges have, for many years, offered second chances both to young people who have, for whatever reason, been failed by schools and to adults who wish to gain new skills and qualifications to cope with structural and personal change. Yet the savage cuts inflicted by both Ms Constance and her predecessor Michael Russell have seriously degraded the ability of further education to continue to play such a role.
Ironically these have been made to protect higher education from any material reductions in its funding - this despite there being lamentable progress in much of that sector to the widening access agenda.
The demographic of the college student population in Scotland demonstrated that it was the very sector which was most able to reach those likely to be excluded from learning.
The Scottish Government's cynical assertion that educational disadvantage can simply be magicked away by passing a piece of legislation without appropriate levels of investment or resources simply has to be challenged.
One is tempted to ask what's going to come next if Ms Constance gets away with this sleight of hand?
Perhaps Ms Robison, the Health Secretary, will, at some future date, seek to eliminate cancer in Scotland by making it illegal to die from that disease in NHS hospitals.
Ms Constance and her Government's commitment to social justice is best appraised by analysing how she has allocated scarce resources rather than by mere rhetoric (albeit that enshrined in law).
Ian Graham,
6 Lachlan Crescent, Erskine.
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