Education falling below standard

SIR, – If Dennis Grattan had been at the (Scotland Matters) meeting I was at last Monday, he would have been horrified by what local employer Conrad Ritchie and well-known expert Carole Ford had to say about the state of Scottish education and its impact on business.

In addition to teacher shortages, the unpopularity of the profession means teaching standards have fallen to the point where one recently retired head told of a young teacher who asked not to be given a P7 class because she couldn’t do the maths.

We even had evidence of the politicisation of the curriculum in the form of the “First Minister’s Reading Challenge” and the “Deputy First Minister’s Maths

Challenge”. I can imagine the outcry if there was a “Prime Minister’s History challenge”.

The litany of issues with behaviour, lowered pass rates, lack of basic STEM knowledge and the sheer failure of Curriculum for Excellence promoted one speaker to say “they are creating a generation of SNP-voting dunces”.

The problem began long before the SNP came to power, but in 12 years they have failed to fix it. It isn’t all to do with money; better discipline and inspection and curriculum reform are required, and above all leadership, management and reform of the key stakeholders; inspectorate, education “establishment”, teachers and parents.

From what I heard it doesn’t seem the SNP are up to the task, and sadly the opposition seem unwilling or unable to take on the mammoth task of turning this failing juggernaut round. Meanwhile great teachers are being wasted, children are let down and parents despair.

Allan Sutherland, Willow Row,

Stonehaven