Failing Scotland’s pupils

ON Monday, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth and Independence Minister Jamie Hepburn unveiled chapter 12 of the SNP’s fictional tale ‘Scotland in Wonderland’. This epic collection of taxpayer-funded musings describing life, or more accurately an impoverished existence in an independent Scotland, has gained a new chapter on education.

As a retired teacher (some 20 years) and observer of a system suffering the consequences of 17 years of SNP stewardship by six Cabinet Secretaries I thought the latest incumbent, Jenny Gilruth, being a former teacher might present a more realistic and knowledgable approach to the future: a forlorn hope as her foreword exposed her inability to apply a balanced assessment and an acceptance of years of steady decline.

It is difficult to understand how anyone once associated with Scotland’s educational system fails to recognise the classic symptoms of systemic failure, much of which can be traced back to the SNP’s introduction of Curriculum for Excellence.

Early consultation (circa 2000) with those tasked to deliver CfE warned it would require major investment in both staffing and classroom resources. Unfortunately for a new generation of young learners, the SNP decided to proceed with its introduction, ignoring the reality of financial constraints following the 2008 banking crisis.

Today we reap what was then sown: a steady decline in literacy and numeracy, mathematics and science, seeing Scotland’s once enviable position as an exemplar of good practice wiped out. Adding insult to injury the SNP withdrew participation in international monitoring: you cannot criticise what hasn’t been reported!

I would like to congratulate Ms Gilruth for exhibiting a rare commodity in SNP circles, foresight: by revealing a flavour of what was to follow, her foreword saved me wasting time reading fiction rather than absorbing real facts gleaned from the real world of 17 years of disastrous SNP management.

GRAHAM WYLLIE, Greengairs, lanarkshire.