Education values

Bumpy ride Alcohol risks Greek crisis Moral appeal

#Alexistsipras Alexis Tsipras resigned as Greek prime minister on Wednesday and called a snap election to take place next month. Analysts generally agreed that the move, while risky, was designed to shore up popular support for bailout terms as Syriza rebels voted against them.

@Greekfire23 wrote: “Greece, the Hellenic Republic of Germany, has no power to do anything other than schedule elections which is why Papandreou = Samaras = Tsipras.”

@Kazimirpeter, the Slovakian finance minister, said: “We respect Mr Tsipras’s decision, but I can’t help feeling it’s a bit cynical timing to do it immediately after the 1st disbursement. #Greece”

#Dismaland Banksy’s newest and most ambitious art project to date, the sprawling “bemusement park” of Dismaland, was unveiled to the public yesterday. As expected, there has been a high demand for tickets but many have lamented technical difficulties that have barred access to the website.

@fatfeistyfemme noted: “I’m guessing the comedically terrible experience of trying to get tickets for #Dismaland is pretty much exactly what Banksy was going for.”

@realdjlocke wrote: “I just got a pair of #Dismaland tickets! Only kidding, I’m still hitting F5 like it’s a whack-amole.”

@iamelliot said: “If you can’t get tickets #Dismaland, don’t forget the UK is full of disappointing theme parks.” IT IS naïve of politicians to think differences in attainment between children from contrasting backgrounds can be eradicated since they are due to innate features, health, income levels, diet, housing, environment and attitudes, all of which will remain.

Teachers know the attainment levels of pupils and there is no need for more testing.

Results are of no use if there is little that can be done to improve them. The most crucial criteria are not easily measured.

Recent improvements in test results for literacy and numeracy in England are lauded as showing the success of policies there.

However, a study by the Childrens’ Society and York University found that pupils in that country are more unhappy than those in any other one except South Korea, where school exam results are a national obsession.

Children in both countries reported enduring stress, emotional problems, feelings of fear, bullying and lack of confidence.

This and their poor average health makes it likely that within 20 years many will suffer mental and/or physical illnesses.

High levels of literacy and numeracy will be of little help to them or society.

This will exacerbate problems for the NHS. The assumption that good academic qualifications inevitably lead to better jobs is disproved by the finding of the Chartered Institute for Personnel that about 50 per

cent of graduates are in lowpaid work which can be done by others without formal qualifications. We accept that medical services, however good, cannot bring excellent health for many.

Why, then, assume that “raising standards” (meaning higher exam results) in schools will mean higher levels of education? Only a small proportion of what we know and can do was learned in schools and colleges.

Providing many more adequate homes of all types will do far more to improve education (in the best sense of the word) and society in general than any amount of improvements in school test results.

That should be the priority for governments. ALAN MATHIESON Glasgow Road

Perth

TO TRAVEL on a train into or out of towns such as Airdrie and Coatbridge, when young mothers with babies and small children are on board, is to realise where a priority for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon should lie – on spoken English.

This was a notable omission from the primary school “learning targets” where clear, comprehensible English should be an essential aim, in addition to recognising any dialect that children may have.

For many young Scots, English would be a second language. (DR) I A GLEN Monks Road

Airdrie AT THE height of the referendum campaign, the SNP leadership painted a picture of how our difficulties could be overcome by breaking away from the rest of the UK – like a mirage of some latter-day Scottish utopia.

This week the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a start on the long campaign for 2016, with a focus on education. It proved to be a bumpy ride.

New initiatives, particularly in reversing poor attainment amongst those from deprived areas, were countered by a multitude of insights into the damage the SNP has inflicted on education over the past eight years of control.

Parents across Scotland have seen the reality of failed initiatives and under-resourcing.

The First Minister will in due course have to address other areas that are more difficult in terms of the SNP’S record, such as health and police, where the shortcomings have become ever more obvious to the people who depend on them.

The heady campaigning vision of a Scotland with problems resolved by separation does not look so enticing when re-imagined as the mismanagement of education, health and the police rolled out across all the other functions and decision-making areas required to keep a country on track. KEITH HOWELL West Linton Peeblesshire HOW depressing to read of the 1,152 deaths caused by alcohol each week in Scotland (your report, 21 August).

I was further depressed to turn to page 15 of your newspaper and see Lidl’s large colourful advert for four cans of high-strength cider on offer for £1.99.

There needs to be a collective responsibility from producers of alcohol, supermarkets, advertisers and the media, along with minimum pricing, to address our nation’s heavy drinking culture.

COLIN FRASER Dumfries & Galloway THE latest turmoil in Athens shows that the Greeks want to stay in the Euro but do not want

to abide by the fiscal constraints that membership of the currency requires.

The European Central Bank should tell Greece that as it obviously cannot reconcile itself to the rules every other Eurozone member obeys it must leave the Euro.

Sadly, the fiction that membership of the currency is irreversible means no-one wants to take responsibility for ejecting the first of the Club Med banana republics.

It is now clear that bad as things are going to be for Greece, things could be a lot worse for those who made it their job to pursue ever-closer union in Europe.

Because no-one can now argue that one size fits all in a common European economic culture – but that was one of the fundamentals of the whole absurd project! (DR) JOHN CAMERON Howard Place

St Andrews BILL Jamieson (Perspective, 20 August) eloquently demonstrates the real reason why Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign is gaining ground: because his ideas are the logical conclusion of the fallacies that dominate the political spectrum today.

All major parties are united in the belief that the state must tax and regulate the economy, while intervening to help