Not adding up

I’d like to echo the comments made by Tom Kelly (Letters, 20 August) about John Swinney and the late Sam Galbraith,

two of the most honourable Scottish politicians. Calls for their resignations then, and now were, and are, politically motivated and unjustified.

Mr Kelly also points to the flaws in the Scottish exam system. I would like to add that in the current farrago about grades, too much emphasis hasbeenplacedonfinalexams and not enough on continuous assessment. Basing educational policy on high-profile testing projects is a trap a number of governments have fallen into in Europe and elsewhere in the UK. This is why teachers in Scotland across the political spectrum have a healthy scepticism about tests like Pisa. Statisticians and mathematicians writing in the Times Educational Supplement said Pisa’s league tables was “useless” and produced rankings which were “meaningless” and used techniques which were “utterly wrong”. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development themselves state that “large variations in single country ranking positions are likely”.

In passing, I’d like to congratulate Jim Houston (Letters, 20 August) on his A pass in English Higher in 1968, though my granny used to say that selfpraise was no honour. However, if his school was anything like mine, he must remember the hours sitting staring at a blackboard, listening, writing and learning by rote. This is why, for all its flaws, so many teachers prefer the Curriculum for Excellence, which encourages debate, critical thinking, creativity and collaborative working. Its laudable aims of helping young people become “successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors”, set Scotland out as a leader. And though we could all do better, these aspirations are something to be proud of.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh