Need to heed urgent plea for help is clear

In May of last year, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared that Scotland’s education system should deliver “excellence for all”. She was at pains to put the issue to the top of her political agenda — even insisting that improving education in Scotland would be the “defining mission” of her administration.

It was quite a pledge — and one upon which some are quite convinced she has manifestly failed.

Today we tell the story of one Fife teacher, so concerned by the state of Scotland’s education system that he has penned an open letter to the First Minister.

Describing it as “utterly broken”, Dunfermline High biology teacher Mark Wilson talks of demoralised teachers, a sub-standard curriculum and never-ending bureaucracy.

Most worrying of all, he suggests children are being failed.

If teachers have identified such a dire situation, what chance do our young people have?

For his part, Keir Bloomer, the architect of the much-maligned curriculum for excellence, insists that, while the approach is correct, the implementation has been “lamentable”.

Mr Wilson’s open letter is no bid to grab publicity and attention, rather a heartfelt and desperate plea for help.

It is one Nicola Sturgeon and her government would do well to heed.