Educating PISA

Hugh Pennington notes Estonia and Slovenia as doing better than Scotland in the PISA maths score (The Scotsman 200, 29 May). Good for them!

Unlike Scotland they are independent sovereign countries and Scotland, as a pioneer in education, must expect, like most pioneers, eventually to be overtaken by others.

Of course, we should try to get back into the lead, for which we may need the resources of independence.

Hugh Pennington then refers to a former UK Treasury funding formula which gave Scotland 11/80ths of the English allocation. That became a feature of the Goschen Formula, which seemed to me rather more generous to Scotland than the present Barnett formula.

Independence will give us control of all our resources and the ability to decide for ourselves how to use them.

DAVID STEVENSON Blacket Place, Edinburgh