Any review of Scottish education should look to the past to plan for the future

Recent letters, blogs and articles on the Scottish education system point to policies, philosphies, societal changes and parental failings which date well before the SNP government.

Depending on your viewpoint, they either did well to slow inevitable further decline or engineered a wilful dismantling of all that remained of one of the world’s best primary, secondary and tertiary education systems. Shockingly, limp reactions to exam results show that no party has the policies or horsepower to pull us out of this nosedive, only criticism and virtue signalling demands for more money.

I agree with calls for an independent review of Scottish education, its funding, principles, governance, curriculum, discipline and practical delivery.

Anyone involved with designing the current system should be barred from the process and those who delivered and benefited from “the good old days” – many of them still working – tasked with updating what worked then to fit the modern world of inclusion, attainment and diversity – minus the ridiculous, unworkable excesses we now hear of.

All parties must accept the recommendations and build them into their policies and manifestoes so we can vote for the parties we rate best qualified to transform education according to the “checklist”.

Holyrood has become a cosy club of like-minded politicians, researchers and bureaucrats who coalesce around received wisdoms on man-made global warming, immigration and various forms of equality.

It’s time the recommendations of a brutally honest review of education was added to that list.

ALLAN SUTHERLAND

Willow Row, Stonehaven

Having not voted for the Tories in over four decades, I was a bit surprised to find myself agreeing with most of what Ruth Davidson wrote in The Scotsman (Perspective, 15 August) with regard to Scottish schools and continuing reform. She seems to understand that as the hamster wheel of educational change keeps turning, those teachers supplying the energy get exhausted.

As for the testing of Primary 1 children, there seems to be little appreciation by John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, of the effect these particular assessments have on some children. In my experience, many pupils cope admirably with assessment of all sorts, but a sizable minority of socially shy children will do anything to avoid being picked out for special treatment, such as performing a test with an adult looking over their shoulder. Such pupils suffer anxiety, producing a negative reinforcement towards assessments and school in general. The most anxious children can suffer severe reactions to being separated out for special attention. Teachers worth their salt understand this and assess such children subtly, informally, and with empathy and compassion. John Swinney may be good with algorithms and spreadsheets, just the sort to produce an excellent protocol for testing car exhausts, all of which can be assessed by the same procedure to see which reach certain standards: but you can’t treat young children like car exhausts.

DAVID MUIR

Findhorn Place, Edinburgh