THERE’S an aspect of the Scottish psyche that can be bi-polar. We’re either the best in the world or the worst. Additionally, for some the glass is always half empty, never half full. That is being displayed as battle rages over education.
There’s much to be proud of in our past. Our people were literate enough to read the word of God centuries ago, before public education became the norm. There were always some drawbacks – a failure to instil confidence and the inarticulacy of students who knew the answers at university but had been schooled to stay silent, for example.
Equally, there are currently issues that cause concern and require to be addressed. Literacy and numeracy are core to any society. Listening to some, though, it’s as if parents should be concerned about sending their bairns to school, lest they return retarded. The situation was never that good, especially over recent years, which is why change was brought in. However, nor is it so bad that collapse is imminent.
It’s a good few years since I had involvement with my children’s education but I was active in my constituency's schools. Some of them were in areas of multiple deprivation and have benefited from additional Scottish Government resources. Others were simply the local school for the area. Some were quite outstanding, others were just doing fine. My experience was that the headteacher was pivotal. An outstanding head could energise not just staff but pupils and parents, even in the most difficult of areas.
However, it's accepted by all that the report card for Scottish education reads "could do better". That, though, isn’t a crisis that needs to see reform abandoned. There’s no going back to the days of pupils sitting silent in rows of desks learning by rote. Time and technology has moved on and in any event, some of those aspects weren’t that good anyway.
The Curriculum for Excellence has been fraught but was sought by all. It needs time to bed down. Change will doubtless be made in parts but an abandonment of it to return to some mythical halcyon age would be wrong. The Scottish Government also needs to resolve the testing issue which it has oscillated on. My view is it’s a smokescreen and there are other greater priorities.
After all, many of the issues impacting on education and the quality of it are beyond the control of those in classrooms. They’re social, economic and even cultural.
There used to be great respect for teachers. Sadly, over recent generations respect has lessened, as pay has fallen. Some of those politicians demanding a return to past days of glory also forget the role played by their own predecessors in seeing both salaries and esteem reduce. With austerity and other social changes much of that cannot be recovered. But, supporting the profession, not denigrating it, would be a start.
Moreover, the Government itself has placed great emphasis on closing the attainment gap. Again, there’s an issue with children from deprived areas falling even further behind. However, the idea that it can all be solved by simply pouring in resources to schools is absurd. The problem is the issues faced 24/7 by those kids, not just what happens during school hours. When schools in deprived areas are having to provide breakfast clubs, not just free school meals, to allow for education, that’s not educational failure but societal neglect.
So, there’s work to be done but as with exams being sat now, it’s method not panic that’s required. There’s no way back to the past but matching the likes of Finland in the future is feasible. But it’s not all the responsibility off education. There are social and economic issues that need addressed, and we need to return to a culture respecting education and those who work in it.
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