Setting standards

In his article on Humza Yousaf (Scotsman, 15 January), Brian Monteith said Scottish pupils are not meeting “international education standards”. What these are he did not say.

I do not know of any official organisation responsible for deciding these standards or which countries comply with them. There are, no official international standards for health, housing religion or parenting, all of which greatly affect education. Why should there be such for education, since ideas on it vary hugely?

What form this takes depends on the kind of society involved. If it is one which does not allow criticism of authority, press freedom, and an independent judiciary its education system will reflect that.

Pupils and students will not learn to think for themselves, be denied access to information their government does not wish them to have, and be indoctrinated rather than educated. In a majority of countries this is the case.

Mr Monteith opposed remaining in the EU because he did not think that foreign governments should decide what happens here . It is then odd that he thinks that our educational policies should be influenced by unknown people in a few other countries.

What does it matter if pupils in Scotland gain lower marks in certain subjects than those in Singapore, which is richer, healthier and much more totalitarian?

Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Does Mr Monteith agree? If so, does he think there should be international standards set to allow comparisons of levels of creativity to be made between countries? John Munro

Glasgow