Andrew Denholm's article on state schools drew me with a seductive flavour of the recent report by the Scottish Conservative Party, First Class ("'Governors better for state schools'", The Herald, November 5).
The article provides a focus on the input by Keir Bloomer, sometime director of education for Clackmannanshire. Some will consider it difficult to believe that he should find it comfortable to make such a 10-page contribution given he had been a member of the education directorate in the Labour-dominated Strathclyde Regional Council. Rather pointedly, however, the foreword seems at pains to stress that the authors have no connection with the Conservative Party.
The subtitle of what I view as this hotchpotch of a report rather gives the political game away: from nursery to university. Mr Bloomer seems to extol the advantages of being premium-qualified at a university and that this helps our economic growth. A little confusingly, however, he also appears to accept other philosophies, applauding the wider pupil-centred educational aspirations for all, embedded in the Curriculum for Excellence. However, he seemingly cannot escape the gravity of the Scottish fixation with university as the only valid road to educational success. Damned with faint praise, in what appears almost as an afterthought, he concludes one section with the added words "vocational education has an important part to play". I expect our further education colleges will sigh with relief.
Somewhat depressingly, he suggests that "the outlook for the ill-educated, unqualified and unmotivated is bleak indeed". This disturbing news sounds like the desperate cry of an agitated recruiting professor visiting a secondary school. I would have enjoyed his essay if it confounded the title and sub-title and pursued a clear theme of pursuing classlessness in Scottish society through a non-elitist, inclusive education system, but then I doubt very much that Ruth Davidson would have accepted that positioning.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive,
Milngavie.
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