IT is a depressing report card. According to new analysis of figures from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), Scotland is failing its brightest pupils with maths students performing worse than in most other industrialised nations. The research from the Sutton Trust think-tank also suggests that in maths and science, able pupils from deprived backgrounds are lagging behind their bright but better off classmates by two years and eight months. The overall assessment of the Sutton Trust is that the situation for high-achieving pupils in Scotland is stagnant at best.
The trust’s assessment is particularly troubling because of the importance of the stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths – to Scotland’s economic and educational prospects. Maths is one of life’s core skills and adults need to be numerate if they are to thrive in an increasingly complicated world, but success in maths and science is also vital for building a strong economy that can compete globally. If we fail to invest in maths and support pupils to do well in the subject, the risk in the long term is that developing countries will surge ahead of us.
However, has the Sutton Trust really come up with a solution with its suggestion of a special fund for highly able pupils? What the trust proposes is that the Scottish Government should establish the fund to support the prospects of high achievers in comprehensives, with children from low and middle income backgrounds with potential in maths and science being identified early on and receiving extra help throughout their time at school. The trust believes ring-fencing money in this way would maximise the attainment of the majority of able students and do much to improve social mobility.
However, at a time when resources continue to be tight, there are questions to be asked about the trust’s idea. Any financial help and extra support for pupils from deprived backgrounds is welcome and the Scottish Government deserves credit for its £120million Pupil Equity Fund, launched last year, which will target money at pupils from poorer backgrounds.
But there are risks with a fund aimed at children from middle as well as lower income backgrounds as the Sutton Trust suggests. Extra help for children who have potential in maths and science is a good idea in principle, but bright children from middle income backgrounds may already have the support that their classmates from poorer backgrounds do not. They may have extra tuition for example, supportive parents who encourage them and the kind of environment at home that is conducive to doing homework and extra study. Could extra help for pupils in these circumstances really be justified?
What is not in doubt is that action is needed to improve Scotland’s performance in the stem subjects. According to the Sutton Trust’s analysis, far from improving, the maths skills of highly able pupils in Scotland have declined in the last seven years. The number of pupils sitting maths and core science subjects at Higher is also falling and there are serious shortages in the specialist teachers we need. However, extra help to encourage pupils with potential in maths and science needs to be targeted at those who would benefit most.
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