Education system is designed to produce standardised worker bees

THE predictable responses from Tavish Scott and John Swinney to the news that fewer students are progressing to tertiary education and that Highers results continue to fail to meet expectations (“More opt for jobs over colleges”, The Herald, June 23) are further evidence of a “one size fits all” policy in how we funnel our children through an education system increasingly designed to produce uniform standardised worker bees ready to slot into the consumer society.

This ethos fails to recognise that we are all individuals with our own set of hopes, aspirations and abilities and that the education system should be designed to maximise the outcome for the individual not be simply tailored to passing exams. If Highers, college and university courses are to have any meaning and value then they must be challenging and beyond the abilities of some. We must accept what appears to be politically unthinkable and that is that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and to pretend that everyone is able to, wants to or actually should pursue an academic pathway is a dangerous unproductive fantasy. To imply that those who do not conform to the expectations of politicians and educationalists have in some way failed is insulting.

Rather than a public wringing of hands at poor results, efforts and funds should be targeted at conditions in society in general to ensure that children from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to exploit their own particular set of abilities at their own pace. David J Crawford, Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow. YOUR leader comment had some interesting points which in certain cases are at the hub of any debate on Scottish education (“Progress on school leavers is welcome” , The Herald June 23).

Your suggestion that a historical gauge of success has been attending a university and it “is a hangover from a bygone era of class division that has proved stubbornly persistent “, is perhaps something which should have by now become self-evident, but has not. However since the numbers attending universities have increased so much in the last half century accessible universities have, perhaps unintentionally, created a class in itself.

the hub of the issue is that Scotland continues to encourage the view that education is essentially a competition. It is not in reality about co-operating with your peers in learning. It is about triumphing over them. However, the main issue is that the competition is fixed. You have to be good at academic subjects to win. Creative or technological type subjects hardly seem to count at the finishing line.

This attitude in education can be found at all levels. I am not fond of school mottos such as “be all you can be’” which always seem pugnacious rather than inspirational. The one I admire most is that of St Roch’s Secondary in Glasgow which is “Alios adiuva”, which means “help others”.

Holyrood seems to me to pursue elitist policies in education which would have had the blessing of Margaret Thatcher. The recently reported estimated £12m tender for national testing appears part of that view of “measure” rather than “support”. Bill Brown, 46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.