University challenge

The recent announcement of Glasgow and Edinburgh universities that they will reserve 20% of their places for pupils from the most disadvantaged sections of society bears all the hallmarks of bowing to SNP pressure to implement yet another of their illthought through policies.

Just like named persons and testing for primary one pupils, the consequences of this have not been properly considered.

Who will lose out? Not the academic high fliers, nor the denizens of Clarkston and Bearsden, but the hard working pupils from comprehensive schools which are not considered to be sufficiently disadvantaged.

Having slogged to achieve the necessary qualifications, their opportunities are to be snatched from them to cover up the failure of SNP education policies to tackle disadvantage at source.

On an individual level, how utterly demoralising will it be to find that, despite hard work, despite exam success, their potential place at university is to be given to someone with fewer qualifications. A simple transfer of disadvantage from one young person to another.

The impact of deprivation on an individual child is greater in Scotland than in any other part of the UK. We see this in educational standards, we see it in health statistics and

we see it in the OECD report which confirmed it.

In their words, it is worse to be poor in Scotland than in the rest of the country. So much for the notion of Scottish social justice!

Instead of tackling this issue in our communities and in our schools, the SNP will ask individual, hard working pupils to pay the price.

CAROLE FORD Terregles Avenue, Glasgow