At the chalkface
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is
to be scrapped as an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report said Scottish teachers were spending too much time in class.
Thought that was where they were meant to be. What about the time they have to spend working overtime at home marking things?
Alison Masterson
Curricula need to be implemented, i.e. the materials for the contact hours need to be prepared by the teacher. The more hours a teacher spends in the classroom, the more preparation they are responsible for. Then there is, as you point out, all the marking that they have to do as well. Reducing contact hours makes sense in that context, as it frees teachers up to focus on their learners, which will lead to better classroom materials, which will in turn lead to better performance in assessments (and easier assessment overall).
Scott Smith So, the SNP have spent 14 years creating confusion, low morale and falling standards in education and are now about to embark on another ten years of the same?! I am no educationalist, but would like to know how teachers spending less than 4.5 hours per day in the classroom and the apparent scrapping of assessment by examination will enable achievement to be improved, or even ascertained. Illiteracy and innumeracy are now commonplace in Scotland’s secondary schools and to a far greater extent than when “experts” were first employed to change and improve the system of education some 50 years ago. It seems the more such “experts” are involved, the worse things get.
Bill Carson So kids do too,then. Teachers are never happy. It’s the vocation they chose. They can’t say the never knew what it would be like as teaching is easier now than when it was when I was at school 33 years ago. Teachers [had] it a lot tougher than they do now.
Paul Mcmungall This isn’t teachers who are saying this, but the OECD in a damning report on Scottish education that the SNP deliberately hid from the Scottish people in the run-up to the May election. It is now clear as to why. This observation by OECD on just how dire Scottish education has [been] allowed to become this last 15 years is just the tip of the iceberg.
Gerard Keegan