I FELT after reading the Agenda item penned by John Swinney, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, that it had all the hallmarks of someone preparing for failure and hence devising a strategy to distance themselves from accountability (“A chance for all to have their say on the future of our education sector”, The Herald Sept 21).

I have learned in my lifetime that one of the main aims of political canvassing of opinion and wide consultation (sometimes termed empowering the people, just as Jeremy Corbyn is doing at the moment) is to say with hand on heart at a much later time: “It was what you wanted; not what I wanted”.

Mr Swinney refers to the Scottish Government Education Delivery Plan. The only problem I see is that it is not a plan. It is a statement of good intentions. If it was a plan it would have lists of robust targets and specific criteria for success against a series of vital development stages.

The only reference I can find in the so-called plan which looks something like a quantifiable target is that by 2030 “students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas make up 20 per cent of Higher Education entrants”.

I feel that the question in everyone's thoughts must be – since the present incumbent in office is very unlikely to remain so by 2030, what will they do to get out of that one?

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive,

Milngavie.

SUCCESSIVE governments have been mandated for decades to deliver excellence and equity in education, so John Swinney, now Education Secretary, gets no gold star for just developing plans for reforms.

His trawling the world for ideas seems strange such a long time after the Curriculum for Excellence was pressed home. It would be nice finally to have some stability at school level, bearing in mind that exit qualifications have to be accepted as fitting every pupil for entry to work, apprenticeships, further education and/or higher education as requirements inexorably become more exacting.

Governance – yet more proposals to improve the way our schools are run – must reflect the fact that parents want this real-world practicality delivered for their children. Infusing confidence in all children so that they can themselves develop their potential fully must be backed up with hard learning, which inevitably needs the ethos to be imbued as early in life as possible. Mr Swinney only hinted at this when he mentioned early years' practitioners' expertise in building good relationships with their classes.

A hole in his plan is the role of the fee-paying schools, which carry on regardless of state attainment challenges. The need to close the gap between the most and least deprived areas of Scotland has to rein in the hiving off of children into the private sector, or else the imbalance in later career opportunities will inevitably continue. There are few fee-payers in much of Scotland, however, this enables clear comparisons to be made. And do rural state school leavers do as well as those from big city state schools and fee-paying establishments?

Joe Darby,

Glenburn, St Martins Mill, Cullicudden, Dingwall.

HOW pleasing it was to read about the excellent ratings awarded to St Roch’s Primary School in Royston (“Thriving school in one of Glasgow’s most deprived postcodes impresses inspectors”, The Herald, September 21). This is surely a genuine good news story.

How refreshing to hear of success in a school in what is termed a disadvantaged area. It becomes almost tedious to read in league tables of the success of schools in the leafy suburbs of places in East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire where there are high levels of parental expectation and pockets deep enough to provide extra tuition where needed. Indeed it would be a considerable surprise should it come to pass that such privileged schools were not high up in such league tables.

Glasgow City Council should be doing more than expressing delight at the success of St Roch’s Primary School. Itshould be actively studying the reasons for the success of Mrs McNulty, the head teacher, and her staff and endeavouring to replicate that success elsewhere.

Finally, I would suggest that the next time you publish the league tables of “successful” schools in terms of Highers awarded and so on, you should give the same space to examples of schools in less privileged areas where results, due to the dedication, expertise, and effort of staff, have been determined to be worthy of recognition.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.