THE BIG IDEAS

Neil Mclennan on how Scots schools can change to improve children’s education.

DISMANTLE BUREAUCRACY

At the moment we have centralisation and a cosy consensus between those who have control in education, and that is not always delivering the best outcomes for our young people. The rhetoric we hear is one of empowerment but the reality is we are subject to more control.

TRANSFORM EXAMS

There’s no reason you couldn’t have young people doing a blend of different qualifications if they felt the teaching was better, the currency was useful in an international market and, most importantly, the service they were getting from the exam provider was superior.

TEACH TECHNOLOGY

The number one education provider in Scotland just now is not teachers or schools, it is Google. Information is easily accessible – what we need to be doing in an age of fake news is to help young people to discriminate between good sources and bad; to understand what they are being fed.

HARNESS TECHNOLOGY

Technology could allow pupils to access different subjects online at their own convenience and work through lessons at their own pace, coming together with learning mentors at particular checkpoints during the day.

CHANGE THE DAY

There are two options here: one is to delay the start of the school day and see if that makes an impact, the other is again to use technology to allow pupils to learn at the time it suits them.

CHANGE THE YEAR

The current school year, with its long summer holiday, was introduced when we were an agricultural country and children were needed to help on the farm, but it has never served the needs of the less well-off.

SEIZE THE DAY

Trotsky said: “War is the locomotive of history.” We know that crisis generates change. There is an opportunity here to transform education. We mustn’t squander it

It was an oftentold story that when they were growing up, Irene’s children thought Mum’s real name was not “Irene” but “Mylove”. Because that was what their dad, Peter, almost always called her. Many were the times the family laughed at the mistake once they were old enough to understand it.

I was among the small group who were allowed to attend Peter’s funeral recently. And, after the interment, I happened to be close enough to see Peter Junior, their eldest child, turn away from the graveside with his mother.

He reached out to her, and softly said, “Take my arm, Mylove.”

And, hesitating only long enough to smile at her son, she did.

I’m not ashamed to say that I cried afterwards.

But they were tears of joy, having seen what mattered most to Peter, live on.