Stop dissing our schools

BILL Brown’s wise comment on education (Letters, May 9), that we should look beyond the dated myth that “hard work and perseverance are the answer” to developing the capabilities of our students, correctly assesses that our schools should not only be focused on academic qualifications but on producing “creative, confident and inquiring individuals”.

On the latest stage-managed antiindependence drama that is BBC Scotland’s Debate Night (May 8), the current level of Scottish education was savaged by Anas Sarwar, Jamie Green and Alex Cole-hamilton in spite of the fact that more than 95.9% of Scottish students are attaining positive

destinations on leaving school. It is bad enough that most politicians and journalists in England have not learned that through Curriculum for Excellence, Scotland, backed by the OECD, has a different focus on education than simply relying on test results but it appears Scottish opposition politicians either do not know this or are disingenuously acting ignorantly. In terms of the narrow PISA testing which the opposition parties like to quote in referencing Scottish education, the UK as a whole has slipped according to recent results (lowest in science and maths since 2006) with Labour-run Wales faring considerably poorer than the other UK nations in all three measures of mathematics, science and reading (average for England 497.0, Northern Ireland 482.7, Scotland 482.3, Wales 468.3). England seemingly fared best but questions remain over the preferential selection of schools from which students were tested.

Perhaps it is time for Anas Sarwar and other opposition politicians to stop denigrating Scottish education and the efforts of our teachers and staff, and to start being honest with the public that in Scotland’s holistic approach, we continue to lead in overall education across the UK and beyond.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.