I was gonna just ignore this but too many friends have urged me to respond so I’m gonna deal with it quickly using cuttings from earlier posts.
She claims:
The Scottish school system was once the jewel in the British educational crown. With good standards and low levels of social inequality, it was seen as the part of the UK where working-class kids could get ahead as a result of a high-quality comprehensive education.
The English system was a basket case by comparison, characterised by huge variations in school quality, poor outcomes and the occasional wacky education theory. In 1997, four in 10 English pupils started secondary school without sufficient levels of literacy.
A quarter of a century later, and the situation has flipped. The latest comparative data on outcomes for 15-year-olds across OECD countries, published last week, shows a Scottish school system in steep decline, blighted by rising levels of social inequality.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/10/scottish-schools-have-tumbled-from-top-of-the-class-this-is-what-went-wrong
I’m going to just deal with two things – that Scottish education was once a jewel and that social inequality is rising.
A letter published in the Herald two days ago deals with the first beautifully:
As for the increasing inequality, see this:
At SCQF level 7 (Advanced Higher), the gap in 2009/10, two years after the SNP first came to power, was 24.1 and by 2021/22 it was 22.2, though down from 25 in the previous year but more important the most disadvantaged group at this level was increasing in size dramatically.
In 2009/10 only 4.7% of those in the most disadvantaged 20% had achieved at this level but by 2021/22, the figure was 10.3%, more than doubling in only 12 years. Remember also, that 20% means nearly 3 000 pupils every year.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/sqa-results-2023
Second, in Primary Schools:
The poverty-related attainment gaps in literacy and numeracy levels across primary schools have seen the biggest decreases since records began, official statistics show.
The gap between the proportion of primary pupils from the most and least-deprived areas achieving expected levels has narrowed by 3.4 percentage points in literacy and 3.7 percentage points in numeracy, according to the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) 2021/22. This marks the largest narrowing of the gap in a year since consistent records began in 2016/17.https://www.gov.scot/news/record-narrowing-of-the-attainment-gap/
Third, why increases in attainment matter more than any gap:
Critics can be found in much of the media shouting about our supposed failure to sufficiently narrow the gap between the most and the least deprived.
At SCQF level 7, the gap in 2009/10, two years after the SNP first came to power, was 24.1 and by 2021/22 it was still 22.2, though down from 25 in the previous year. If you have limited understating of statistics or cynically only wish to accuse the SNP Government of failure, these statistics hide the true nature of change.
In 2009/10 only 4.7% of those in the most disadvantaged 20% had achieved at this level but by 2021/22, the figure was 10.3%, more than doubling in only 12 years. Remember also, that 20% means nearly 3 000 pupils every year.
Over the same period 28.8% of those in the most advantaged 20% had achieved at this level and by 2021/22, the figure was 38.8%, a smaller in percentage but larger in actual numbers, increase.[v]
So, despite the major improvement among those from the most deprived 20%, there had also been a significant improvement among the least deprived 20%. So, the gap had only narrowed slightly, after widening in the previous year, and two successes, one in a priority area for government, the gap widened in 2020/21 and then only narrowed in 2021/22, is then reported as failure.
We could, of course easily narrow the gap by simply denying access to Level 7 for many of those in the least disadvantaged 20%. That’s exactly the kind of social engineering they did in Albania for much of the second half of the 20th Century and in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
The attainment gap is a largely artificial and mostly political idea with no meaning for those it describes. What really matters is the massive improvement in the life chances of those in the most disadvantaged 20%. It’s not enough, of course, but this fact relates to the real experience of thousands rather than that of the media and opposition party opportunism.
There have been similar improvements in attainment for the other three groups between the most and the least disadvantaged. The gaps between them and the least disadvantaged are narrower and, of course, of no interest to the media.
Taken together and based on evidence, we see a very different picture of the achievements of the SNP in Government, in this last decade and more, in assisting schools and learners to achieve all that they can achieve.
In the end, of course, most of the credit goes to the learners and to the schools but just as the opposition parties would want to claim credit had they been in government and, had the trends that matter gone the other way, they would blame us for it, the SNP in government deserves its share.
[i] https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-attainment-initial-leaver-destinations-no-5-2023-edition/documents/
[ii] http://zhaolearning.com/2014/03/09/how-does-pisa-put-the-world-at-risk-part-1-romanticizing-misery/
[iii] https://progressgp.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/does-south-koreas-education-system-hurt-its-students/
[iv] https://thediplomat.com/2017/03/hong-kongs-wave-of-student-suicides/
[v] https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-attainment-initial-leaver-destinations-no-5-2023-edition/documents/
[vi] https://www.gov.scot/news/record-narrowing-of-the-attainment-gap/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
AS A ONCE PRIME MINISTER ONCE SAID
THIS BLOODY WOMAN SHOULD LEARN TO READ
SO KIND OF FACTUAL PAPER
BEFORE OPENING THAT GOB
COULD MISLEAD REAL ENGLISH PEOPLE
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In the early noughties the Laour/LibDem Scottish Executive initiated the Big Conversation about Education. Out of that consultation came the decision by ScotExec in 2004 to adopt the Curriculum for Excellence for Scottish Schools. Implementation started in Primary Schools so was already underway by the time the SNP came to power in 2007.
As to the attainment gap between the most advantaged vs least advantage. UCAS carried out an analysis of university applications of all 4 home nations from 2006 to 2018. The report was published in Feb 2018 as part of their report into Uni applications for the Academic Year 2018 – 19.
In order to allow a comparison between all 4 nations the 2006 to 2018 applications were analysed using Polar 3.
In Scotland in 2006 the ratio of applications from the most advantaged to the least advantaged pupils was 4.5 to 1.Quite a gap. By 2018 it had narrowed to 2.6 to 1 and as UCAS noted that narrowing was due to the INCREASE in applications from the most disadvantaged pupils. In 2006 less than 10% of Uni applications came from the least advantaged but by 2018 it was just over 17%. UCAS also noted that only 2/3rds of Scottish uni applications were via UCAS so the increase in applications was possibly higher from the least advantaged group.
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The PISA 2022 results are just one of a raft of measures that one can and should use to assess the quality and relevance of an eduction system and its associated curriculum.
We need a ‘balanced scorecard’ and we need balanced, objective consideration of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in system. We do not need insulting, partial, partisan and ill-informed comment on Scottish education from the Westminster government’s Education Secretary aided and abetted by a newspaper supposedly ‘serving’ Scotland.
Scotland on Sunday (SoS) gave Gillian Keegan space today to tell us – justified by the PISA 2022 scores – that we have ‘a failing Scottish system at the brink of collapse’. No balance here: no objective analysis. Even the OECD which runs the PISA system recognise the worth of Scotland’s education system.
‘In 2020, Scottish pupils were among the top performers in a new and different kind of Pisa test looking at “global competence”.
‘THEY WERE AMONG THE MOST LIKELY IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD TO UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE THE PERSPECTIVE OF OTHERS, DEMONSTRATE POSITIVE ATTITUDES TOWARDS IMMIGRANTS, AND SCORE HIGHLY ON A TEST THAT ASSESSES THE ABILITY TO EVALUATE INFORMATION AND ANALYSE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES.
‘Scotland was the only part of the UK to take part in this test. In 2018, THE OECD INDICATED THAT ENGLAND DECLINED TO TAKE PART PARTLY BECAUSE OF A FEAR IT WOULD SCORE POORLY.
See https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/scotland-pisa-scores-drop
The above results for Scotland received little or no media coverage in Scotland at the time! And from the TES Magazine, 22 January 2018: ‘ England shunning global skills test because pupils are ‘not ready for it’ – Pisa boss suggests failure to equip students with ‘global competence’ contributed to Brexit vote
‘England declined to take part in an international test looking at pupils’ understanding of world issues partly because of a fear it would score poorly, Andreas Schleicher has suggested.’
Following a request by the Scottish Government, the OECD undertook a review of Curriculum for Excellence. It reported in 2021: OECD (21 June, 2021) Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence – Into the Future.
Whilst critical of some aspects of implementation, the experts in the OECD study wrote:
‘Curriculum for Excellence in context – Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) offers an inspiring and widely supported philosophy of education. Its framework allows for effective curricular practices and for the possibility of a truly fulfilling education for learners. Building upon its commitment to education quality, Scotland can make adjustments within CfE’s flexible framework to achieve its potential for learners present and future.
‘Students in Scotland engage in learning through CfE, which aims to provide a holistic, coherent, and future-oriented approach to learning between 3 and 18 years and lets schools design their curriculum based on a common framework.’
Key findings included: ‘Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence continues to be a bold and widely supported initiative, and its design offers the flexibility needed to improve student learning further
‘Stakeholder engagement is at the heart of Curriculum for Excellence and offers the possibility, with better structure, for shared ownership and effective leadership of CfE
‘Continued efforts are needed to enhance the coherence of the policy environment with Curriculum for Excellence – CfE’s originality continues to influence international curriculum policy. Scotland made great progress in developing and supporting teachers’ capacity to be curriculum makers, and the capacity of school leaders to lead the curriculum process in their schools. This work has become challenging for schools considering the multiple new policy initiatives; and Scotland’s comparatively high rate of teachers’ class contact time and its expectations for teachers to lead and plan curriculum locally.’
There is much more: there is some negatives and indications of room for improvement. That is what expert critical reviews are commissioned to do – investigate, analyse, identify weaknesses and suggest improvements. The OECD report is very far from highlighting a system collapsing!
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Can fully agree with Alan Mathieson et al.
As a Scottish female, I was at school in the 60s and 70s. It was hard. Any chance of creativity was quickly abolished with a battering, either around the head or grabbed by the arm and walloped several hard times over the bottom in front of the entire primary school – and this was at Broughton, Edinburgh. Then onto Comrie Primary, for P4. This time it was the turn of the parochial bullies – that was even worse. By the time I reached P7 there was no point. Then a new headmaster stepped in, and for some reason could see a bit of creativity in the underdog and the bullies were kept under wraps. Onwards to Crieff High, it was just a mere Junior High School with teachers whose sole purpose was to get through each day with WW2, Empire and deadly dull books on English countryside. Sport became the mainstay, however, even this was curtailed and not for O Grades (remember them) qualifications. The curriculum offered cooking, typing and sewing for we girlies. Not for me, I can do that. Mocked when asked what I ‘wanted to do when I left school’. Me, ‘I want to be a mechanic’. The order of ‘choice’ became Engineering Drawing – like drawing flat squares on paper quantifies mechanics? Broke the mould though and became the first female at Crieff High (now knocked down and a community campus) to take a ‘boys’ subject. Of course this had to be met with Physics and Maths, I wanted to take Chemistry and APH (Anatomy, Physiology and Health, no Biology then). So school was a waste of time for me.
Upshot, a zillion years later, in 2017 I decided I would like to learn more about all the things I was not taught in school and was accepted to study, fully funded, with the University of the Highlands and Islands. Went for a BAH Culture and Heritage, even achieved a first. Followed this with the MLitt in Island Studies, just a pass, and then a further MLitt in Archaeological Studies with a Merit even. Now of course that elusive career still evades, as at 62, I apparently lack ‘experience’ and ‘skill set’ when applying for jobs in the culture, heritage and archaeology realm…ahh well…how do you quantify a lifetime of ‘skills, experience and determination’ to learn about the culture we, as Scots, should have been taught at school that was ruled by the empire in the 60s and 70s…
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Sodha is not clueless, she’s sticking with the same Tory script of a golden age which none can remember, the same spiel which brought you “take back control…”.
The orchestration of this Pisa-piss grows ever obvious, the latest from Gillian Keegan, but appears to be part of a broader diversion strategy of “Look, a SNP squirrel…” from all that’s going wrong in Torydom…
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An article in the BBC News Section (under Health) says
“Parts of the UK could become home to mosquitoes capable of spreading dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus by the 2040s and 2050s, health officials warn.”
Mention of the chikungunya virus rang a bell and prompted me to look up Valneva! Valneva is the French pharmaceutical company, some may recall, who received a termination notice in September 2021 from the UK Government in relation to the supply of its Covid-19 vaccine.
The article below is from the Daily Express and is dated 20th November 2023 –
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-enterprise-claw-back-millions-31477524
“Scottish Enterprise claw back millions from Valneva over failed Covid vaccine but public money still on the line”
continues –
“As of now, £4.3m has been paid out, with this being halted when the coronavirus jab production was stopped. Instead, a new agreement was reached between the two organisations earlier this year, with the total amount due being reduced down to £11.8m, for work being done on its Chikungunya and Japanese Encephalitis vaccines.”
continues –
” Valneva had planned to sell its mothballed Almeida facility in Livingston but will now be using it to produce its Japanese encephalitis vaccine and chikungunya vaccine candidate.”
The last paragraph –
” A Scottish Enterprise spokesman said: “Our funding support for Valneva’s new state-of-the-art vaccine development facility secured the long-term future of the site in Livingston, and supported the company towards the US approval received just last week for the world’s first Chikungunya vaccine.”
Well done Scottish Enterprise!
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The Tories cut education funding £5Billion a year from 2015. Students in the south end up in huge debt.
1 in 20 pe people are on the spectrum and need support. Some will never be mainly academic but have other skills and talents Some struggle to read and write. They should have other placements which are less noisy and increase anxiety. Open plan classes doesn’t help.
More pupils are getting support and more understanding. Teachers need more training in diversity.
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