IT seems revelations that student teachers do not learn enough "maths" (arithmetic in my day) at school to teach primary kids how to count came as a complete surprise to the Holyrood education committee, so its members have requested the universities to explain "how they prepare students for the task" (“Huge gap in colleges’ hours of literacy and numeracy”, The Herald, May 18).
This situation is well known, teacher friends have often told me about it. I googled "low numeracy skills Scottish teachers" and found a report from 2008 by Sheila Henderson and Susan Rodrigues, which says that 65 per cent of a sample of 80 student teachers failed a test based on 28 typical Scottish primary curriculum topics. I read that again. After at least 12 years at school, student primary teachers couldn't, basically, count.
This situation must have started in 1996 or earlier. The real scandal is therefore that, in 18 years of devolution, despite freely available information, our devolved government has ignored it.
What is the point of having committees and MSPs – this devolved Government, in fact – if they are so ill-informed, uninquiring and lacking in initiative that they miss such a fundamental flaw, and, when they do, their Convener (James Dornan) simply tosses the problem over the wall with a letter to all the universities, no doubt muttering "job done" to himself?
Allan Sutherland,
1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.
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