HEADTEACHERS have questioned the wisdom of Scotland following the lead of countries such as Sweden and Finland in reforming the education system.
Neil Shaw, the new president of School Leaders’ Scotland (SLS), which represents secondary heads, said education here had its own unique problems to address.
The warning comes after the Scottish Government suggested councils wanting to improve schools should look to Sweden and Finland, which have performed well in international com- parisons.
Education Secretary Michael Russell said the Swedish model of free schools, which exist alongside state-run schools but are independently run, was one example worth further consideration. He also stressed the example of Finland, saying it may have lessons for Scotland.
But Mr Shaw said: “I am becoming weary of hearing about the success of the Finnish education system. Finland, along with other countries highlighted as successful by the recent report by the OECD, an international economic group, has much lower levels of social and financial inequality than Scotland. This would appear, given the research, to be a major factor in Finland’s success.
“Now it appears that levels of literacy, maths and science attainment in Sweden are falling as the Free Schools create a more disparate society.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article