I RUN one of Scotland’s top engineering degree programmes. In the coming decades there will be a massive need for engineers to support economic growth – there is an expected 36,800 shortfall in qualified engineers predicted by 2050.
To address this we have to convince more students to take Stem subjects (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics), particularly under-represented groups.
In October official figures revealed there had been a fall in the number of pupils taking Stem subjects at Higher in Scotland, and a lack of progress regarding the proportion girls taking these key subjects. This is bad for Scotland’s future prosperity and it is bad for the life chances of young Scots.
Now we find that not only has there been a decline in the number of students studying Stem subjects in Scottish schools, but standards are declining according the respected PISA standard.
In mathematics Scotland has gone from ninth in 2003 to 24th in 2015. In science Scotland is now 19th, compared to 10th in 2006. Thomas Telford, James Watt, Robert Stevenson and William Arrol must be spinning in their graves.
The problem is that the same people who got us into this mess by cutting education budgets in a way that would make Margaret Thatcher proud now tell us they have the solution to the problem – more centralisation and bureaucracy for head teachers.
After 10 years of indifference the SNP Government should now use our parliament’s powers to invest in our schools, ensuring they have enough teachers and support staff to reverse this decline they have presided over.
Dr Scott Arthur,
27 Buckstone Gardens, Edinburgh.
THE poor showing by Scottish Schools in the Pisa survey means it is more than time for the Scottish Government to abandon its two-plus-one language policy in primary schools. This requires primary school children to be taught two languages – one of them preferably Gaelic – as well as English. The policy was introduced by Michael Russell and was an attempt to get everyone to learn Gaelic in the romantic pretence that we were really a Gaelic speaking nation that had lost its way. However, as he realised that there would be opposition if the only non-English language taught in Scottish schools were Gaelic, he devised the two-plus-one policy. The languages are often taught by primary school teachers who are not language specialists and who have been trained on short, intensive courses to deliver the material.
Of course there are many schools in Scotland where lots of children already speak another language as well as English, but the policy takes little account of this. It does not use such children as a "resources" to help children understand the concept of language and develop their language skills, although I do know of one school where a young Spanish-speaking child has to correct the Spanish being taught by the teacher. Moreover, since the introduction of the policy, Scottish levels in literacy and numeracy have fallen off the cliff,
There is no doubt that children learn those things that schools focus on most strongly. This, after all is the principle behind specialist music or sport schools. So it does not take rocket science to realise that if you want to improve levels of basic literacy and numeracy, this is what you focus on. You need to establish these skills securely before wandering off to explore other interesting areas. And, in case anyone is in any doubt, by "focus" I mean "focus the teaching". There is absolutely no benefit in testing what has not been taught.
Judith Gillespie,
40 Findhorn Place, Edinburgh.
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