Letters: Surely now the voice of the teachers must be heard

The effect on staff has been demoralising. There is a general principle in play at present and that is you must not speak out. A professional's opinion is not valued and therefore there was never the option of trying to correct the fundamental flaws.

I argued and fought to try to convince anyone I could that CfE was a dead duck. The effect on pupils' performance has now become apparent system (“Anger after schools have worst results in reading and science”, The Herald, December 7). The effect on staff, after having years of unreasonable demands placed on them, is unknown as no-one has honestly asked, but the result will become apparent in individual's lives over time. It gives me no pleasure in saying that I think I was right. The problems can be resolved if the voice of the teaching profession is allowed to be heard.

David Vaughan,

Hillfoot, Cawdor, Nairn.

FROM a world-class system we have steadily declined under an SNP Government to barely average across all measures in reading, mathematics and science. Predictably, the usual suspects like Finland and Norway, have outperformed Scotland on every statistic but now others, such as Slovenia, have overtaken us too. No longer is there any point in moving to the leafy suburbs for a better education. Your best bet is to move to Estonia.

At the start of this Curriculum for Excellence debacle, the Scottish Government was left in no doubt about the probable outcome of its policies. It was not rocket science to predict the decline. The curriculum is defective and the teaching methods suspect. There are no expected standards at any level in the Scottish curriculum until the age of 16, at which point it is too late to remedy deficiencies. There is no proper assessment of attainment in primary schools and there is no evidence whatsoever that the prescribed methodology, “active learning”, works. In fact, the steady decline in standards suggests very strongly that it doesn't.

The inspectorate is no longer independent but has been subsumed into Education Scotland, an arm of government. It no longer assesses quality; it merely assesses conformity to government policy. Brownie points all round for the school which avoids direct teaching and written work in favour of projects and investigations. If Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) had been doing its job properly then the decline in standards would have been identified in school inspection reports; it wasn't. Only secondary teachers appear to have spotted the steady decline.

So how has the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, John Swinney, responded to yet more evidence of a shocking decline in our education system? He considers that we should maintain course and let the reforms work. He wants to fast-track science and maths teachers into the profession, diluting quality just at the point when we need to improve it. He will give more autonomy to head teachers to ban homework, as at Inverlochy Primary School, in the teeth of all the evidence that homework improves standards. Steady as we go, poorer quality teachers, no control of maverick schools. As Terry Wogan once said, is it me?

Economic prosperity and social mobility depend on the quality of a country's education system. Social justice demands that the education system provides opportunity for everyone and the SNP has failed miserably to deliver this. We have had 10 years of systemic incompetence and every child in Scotland deserves better. With no change to SNP policies, the outlook is grim.

Carole Ford,

Former president, School Leaders Scotland,

132 Terregles Avenue, Glasgow.

POOR education delivers poor jobs, resulting in poor life choices and poor living standards. There is nothing more important than education.

The epitaph of this SNP Government will record its ego, matched only by incompetence generally and specifically on education.

Its sacrifice of our children's education and, by definition, our country's future, is utterly depressing.

Jimmy Armstrong,

3a Abergeldie Road, Ballater.

THE recent revelations in the published Pisa tests should not shock anyone.

However, I would not place the blame on teachers of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Ever since the introduction of Standard Grade, Scotland has had a habit of handing teachers a skeleton syllabus and telling them to flesh it out themselves. It is as if our education administrators planned their own disappointment.

I agree with the view in the analysis article expressed by Dr Alan Britton (“Pisa provides flawed foundation for major school reform”, The Herald, December 7) that we should be very wary of a knee-jerk reaction over the results.

Although it might seem a rather bizarre observation to make, I feel part of the issue can be witnessed in the familiar traffic cone on the head of the Duke of Wellington statue on Glasgow's Queen Street. I feel that this is indicative of a society where officialdom and the “powers that be” are often treated with flippancy and contempt. This attitude inevitably leaches out into education and forms a generational vicious circle. I suspect that in some of our communities active non-compliance with people in charge is often tolerated if not indeed condoned as a right of individual freedom.

This compares with all the top seven countries in the Pisa tests which, being Asian have much more regard for authority, rank and status in society. Their pupils need to excel in education, driven by a culture of either conforming successfully or losing face. For example, such is the academic pressure on young people in Japan, I understand that in 2014 the leading cause of death in children aged 10-19 was suicide. In ages 10-24 the country has roughly 4.600 suicides a year with more than 150,000 in hospital with self-inflicted injuries.

We must be careful therefore to provide a fulsome debate on this performance issue on whom we wish to be compared with. However, the fact alone that we Scots are seen to be “dragging down” the UK statistics must surely be cause for very real concern and in need of address by Holyrood.

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.

THERE were times when the education system in Scotland was held in high regard. TB Macaulay once wrote in 1859 about the position in Scotland in the early 18th century: “It began to be evident that the common people of Scotland were superior in intelligence to the common people of any country in Europe.…This wonderful change is to be attributed, not indeed solely, but principally, to the national system of education.” However, we should not get too carried away. There are a number of us of enough of a mature age to remember the severe discipline in schools, with the belt used liberally as a teaching aid. A balanced conclusion on the past, based on reality rather than myth, is desirable and I believe that was well expressed in 1969 by James Scotland: “At its best the Scottish tradition in education has served the people of Scotland well.”

Now parents and others, interested in the well-being of our country’s educational system are entitled to be profoundly concerned and deeply disappointed. We have reached the position where we lag behind countries like Vietnam, Estonia and Slovenia, of no little importance given the global economy within which we are expected to operate. Our First Minister stated earlier this year that she wanted to be judged by her Government’s performance on education. I would suggest that she should be redoubling the Government’s efforts in this area and at the same time checking the solidity of the peg upon which her jacket is hanging. The ploy of blaming Westminster will not work this time.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.

THE most recent Pisa results are a further wake up call to the Scottish Government that radical educational reform is urgently required. Rather than a continuous programme of consultation, which will inevitably be caught up in appeasing the vested interests of local authorities and the teachers unions, the time has come for the Scottish Government to take immediate action.

In recognition of Scotland’s ongoing slipping standards, the Hometown Foundation, a Scottish registered charity with an interest in education, began to consult with concerned parents and teachers groups three years ago to develop solutions that would give rise to greater educational attainment. As a result of this, detailed business plans have been sitting with the Government for up to two years.

These proposals fully empower teachers, parents and schools, by funding schools directly, putting head teachers in charge and making provision for greater parental and community support. In fact, this is what the Government says it wants to see happening in the education governance review. We see no reason why the Government is unable to allow these pilots to progress outwith the review, in order to inform the consultation process and wider education reform in Scotland.

Every day lost in barren consultations to placate vested interests, will result in even more young Scots having to leave school without the tools they need to make a success of their lives. There is an urgent need for well-chosen, carefully thought-out and independently evaluated pilots from which lessons can be learned. A “lock-step” approach - a mandatory change for every school in Scotland at the same time - would not be practical and, quite simply, would not work.

Bill Nicol,

Director, Hometown Foundation,

Mechanics Workshop, New Lanark.