Radical changes to Scotland's school curriculum, which attempt to move teaching away from rote learning and make it more relevant, were unveiled yesterday.
Radical changes to Scotland's school curriculum, which attempt to move teaching away from rote learning and make it more relevant, were unveiled yesterday.
As part of ongoing reform of what is taught in primary and secondary schools - known as the Curriculum for Excellence - a series of documents have been produced to show what children should know in each subject during their school life.
Under the changes reading, writing and spelling are to be embedded in all lessons - rather than just English - and close attention will be paid to spelling, comprehension and punctuation.
Because pupils spend a lot of time blogging or using webcasts, podcasts and social networking sites, the emphasis on literacy is intended to teach when it is acceptable to use abbreviated forms of English such as text speak.
Maths will be made more relevant by including lessons on personal finance and science will see a greater focus on the environment.
Published in draft form last year, some of the so-called "outcomes" were savaged by critics for being too vague.
The outcomes for science and maths were given a particularly rough ride after a working party from the Royal Society of Edinburgh published a damning report which said fundamental principles had been ignored.
"The outcomes contain hardly any mention of fundamental concepts, laws and methods. Where will the bedrock of understanding come from whereby the next generation of scientists, or even of scientifically aware lay-persons, will be developed," the working group asked.
After the concerns were made public, Fiona Hyslop, the Education Secretary, said the materials would be changed and that specialists would influence reform.
Yesterday, Ms Hyslop welcomed publication of the new outcomes, which cover eight areas - languages, maths, health and wellbeing, sciences, history, geography and modern studies. They also cover literacy and numeracy.
"We are marking the reform of the Scottish education system as we prepare our young people for the challenges of life in the 21st Century," said Ms Hyslop. "The reforms are intended to raise standards by improving learning and teaching with literacy and numeracy a key focus."
The Educational Institute of Scotland welcomed the documents, but warned that schools and teachers needed better support to meet the aims of the programme.
Rhona Brankin, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Labour Party, said the documents were weak on basic skills such as literacy. She said: "The literacy outcomes remain far too vague. Parents will want to know where is the outcome which ensures their children can read."
Margaret Smith, for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, warned a decline in teacher numbers would impact on the success of the new curriculum.
Liz Smith, of the Scottish Conservatives, described the new curriculum as "creative and imaginative", but said the government had to deliver improvements to reading, writing and counting and exam results in secondary school.
