I can appreciate why Alastair McLeish (Letters, January 15) is angry that there is no investigation why pupils do not choose Burns as a question to answer in the Higher English paper.
Age seven I won a Burns Federation certificate for reciting, not a Burns poem but The Sair Finger by Walter Wingate. When my children competed for the Burns certificate prize the poems chosen for them were frequently not written by Burns, but by poets such as JK Annand, John M Caie or Sheena Blackhall. Burns has perhaps been a catalyst for encouraging others poets writing in Scots or Doric. The aims of the Robert Burns Federation are to promote, educate and celebrate the life and works of Robert Burns and Scotland's heritage, language and culture.
It is therefore an error of judgment to omit Burns’ work from the Higher English paper.
But I was heartened tonight to be sent a video of our granddaughter who attends a Renfrewshire primary school practising with enthusiasm, the poem Up in the Morning Early by Robert Burns.
Perhaps not enough primary or secondary schools are exposing their pupils to the work of our national bard (who as Alastair McLeish points out has international appreciation) and this may be one reason why Burns questions have been previously avoided in the English Higher paper.
Irene Munro, Conon Bridge.
Read more letters
- We motorists know the new LED headlights are dangerous
- OK, we have a boat. But it doesn't solve Arran's problems
Don't blame the RMT
Within 48 hours of her first sailing we’re seeing letters regarding the new Glen Sannox. John Rankin (Letters, January 15) seems to think that the RMT union is wholly responsible for the standards of crew accommodation.
In fact all crewed commercial vessels with the exception of fishing boats are required to have accommodation to a standard set out in the Maritime Labour Convention 2006. This is one of four international maritime conventions, the others cover safety, pollution and training of seafarers.
Jim MacRitchie, Paisley.
• The new Glen Sannox ferry is, we are told, too large for the port of Ardrossan.
As a child in the late 1960s/early 70s, I have fond memories of travelling on the large passenger ferries (such as MV Lion) which sailed from Ardrossan to Belfast, on our way to holidays in Donegal. The new Arran ferry seems no larger than those ships, so is the Ardrossan port now smaller?
M Carr, Glasgow.
Unfair to target GPs
So GPs are being told to keep patients out of hospital. 'Twas ever thus ("Why are out-of-hours GPS being told to keep patients away from hospital?", The Herald, January 16). In my nearly 40 years as a GP I often heard tales of these mythical unnecessary admissions. My response to someone who talked about them was to ask that person to outline one or two and explain how admission could have been avoided. The resulting silence spoke for itself.
Similarly, I never read a discharge letter outlining why my admission was unnecessary and what I could have done better, so as to improve next time.
GPs are well aware, and probably even more so these days, of the dangers as well as advantages of hospital admission.
Maybe if the other parts of the service thought harder about where the real problems lie they could direct their fire in a more appropriate direction?
Dr David Syme, Killin.
Sound bytes
Carlos Alba’s piece on the impact and importance of data ("The answer may be in the data, but what’s the actual question?", The Herald, January 15) should be read by people like me who struggle to really get a firm handle on making sense of AI in the real, practical world we humans inhabit.
He warns that “data is meaningless if we expect objective truth from it, without considering our perceptions, assumptions, and our own creativity”. He cautions us to recognise data as information not insight. He’s a smart cookie all right.
Barry Docherty, Glasgow.
Faithful to the BBC's remit
I wonder, after his sniffy dismissal of The Traitors as trash TV, if James Scott (Letters, January 14) changed his position when he read in Wednesday's Herald that 9.2 million viewers had tuned into the programme on New Year's Day ("9.2m tune in to The Traitors", The Herald, January 15). Or maybe he just choked on his cornflakes in disbelief. Either way he should remember the Reithian principles upon which the BBC was founded, namely to "inform, educate and entertain" because whatever else is said about The Traitors it is hugely entertaining.
Peter Farrell, Glasgow.
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