Keep climate fear out of schools

AJ CLARENCE (Letters, April 30) criticises Richard Lucas (Letters, April 26) for using the words “Green Party indoctrination” to describe how fear about climate change is percolating into our schools.

Five years ago pupils were allowed to walk out of school to protest about the government’s supposed lack of action in “tackling climate change”. The pupils involved were most certainly subjected to green indoctrination. The walk-out caused disruption to routine and contributed to indiscipline which is a major problem today in some of our city schools. Pupils go to school to learn, not to engage in the virtue-signalling of which AJ Clarence approves. The basics of behaviour, numeracy and literacy must come first.

As a retired geography teacher I disagree with AJ Clarence’s alarmism about climate change and economic advancement. He rails against oil and gas which are foundations of modern economies, and wrongly states that extreme weather events are getting worse. Even the UN disagrees with that. The longest heatwave on record was 182 days over 38C in Marble Bar, Australia, between 1923 and 1924. The wettest place over 12 months was in Cherrapunji, India, from August 1860 to July 1861 when 1042 inches of rain fell.

There is an organisation, Teach the Future Scotland, which is pressurising Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth to include “climate justice” across the curriculum, include “the climate emergency” in teacher training, prioritise “sustainability” in school inspections, and prioritise all schools to be retrofitted to meet net zero targets. Leaving to one side the fact that there is no “climate emergency”, if followed, all these demands would make education worse. Last December after the latest PISA report, the BBC’S James Cook said “Scotland’s performance in maths, science, and reading has been on a downward trend for 15 years”. He should have added “since the SNP Government took power”. The last thing Ms Gilruth should do is adopt Teach the Future Scotland’s manifesto and ensure that children do not leave school fearing for their future because of some looming climate disaster.

What is required is not the teaching of UN sustainability goals and placing extra burdens on teachers, but a concentration on the basics.

William Loneskie,

Lauder.