Fears about Scottish education are totally unfounded

Perhaps it is time for some remedial education for this St Andrews graduate. He told the shadow secretary of state for education, Damian Hinds, that: “Scottish education used to be the envy of the world.” He further referenced the very real struggles of four north Sutherland schools and asked if this was “a damning comment on the Scottish Government’s delivery of education north of the Border?”

Well, firstly, “envy of the world” is not a criterion of success. It is a mythologising term, unrooted in evidence and regularly wheeled out by Unionists to slam the young people of this nation for tawdry political points.

Secondly, this perceived slip in standards is usually linked to the “evidence” of Pisa test results. Those would be the same Pisa results that England has taken such great pleasure in parading as being so much better than those achieved by Scottish students.

This is despite a sample size of around 50 children. And despite the fact that the difference between the students had narrowed to no longer hold statistical relevance. And despite the fact that England’s results could not be verified this time because they used pupils a year older than that of the other nations. And despite the fact England achieved this by slashing their schools’ curriculum to core subjects, removing mandatory art, music, physical education and other subjects which in Scotland are considered necessary for the nourishment for our young people.

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But, then again, perhaps Mr Stone has finally managed to attain the success rate of a broken clock. Perhaps there is much blame to go around. Perhaps education in Scotland is both a damning indictment of the SNP administrations he evidently thinks he is taking aim at, as well as of the first three Scottish Labour/LibDem governments – the last of these being the architect of Curriculum for Excellence under Jack McConnell – as well as being the same parliaments in which Stone “served” us as MSP.

Or, perhaps, it is an indictment of the failure of Highland Council to adequately resource and support education. And, perhaps, its failure is coincidentally linked to this institution upon which this “public servant” of long-standing also drew a taxpayer-funded salary?

Or, perhaps, it is a damning indictment of a member of parliament who has failed to secure the funding necessary to maintain and support these fragile communities despite having been returned by these communities across three decades in return for … ?

Now, it is true that despite a long, tax-subsidised career, Mr Stone has never risen to hold any form of ministerial brief – either at Holyrood or Westminster – but I’m sure that is no reflection on the esteem for his ability in which he is held by his party.

However, over those years, he can scarcely have failed to notice that the years of austerity which were ushered in and facilitated by his party might have made some form of contribution to the issues within Scottish education. Perhaps the £800 million the Scottish Government has had to spend to ameliorate the Dickensian whims of the LibDems’ Tory masters might have been better spent elsewhere but, of course, we will never know.

However, at least he scores highly for consistency, commenting on devolved matters upon which he can have no impact, exactly as he did throughout his re-election campaign. Indeed, even Damien Hinds knew that – the Tory calling a halt to Stone’s irrelevant comments despite the blizzard of compliments being rained upon him by our member.

Oh, that’s Damien Hinds who is staffed at Westminster by a former Sutherland school pupil, by the way. A staffer who, presumably, picked up some skills at his state school.

Stone’s statement was especially interesting because it coincided with the announcement that Scotland had just won the World Schools Debating Championships in Serbia, building on the country’s successes in 1990, 1999, 2007 and 2012. Which seems as good a sample size of student success over a longitudinal period of time as the Pisa tests. Especially as those tests didn’t begin until the year 2000 whereas the debate contests began in 1988.

Perhaps Mr Stone’s desire to recreate the English system up here is based upon a real fear that if we continue educating people in the Scottish way, we will have a population educated enough to assess his record and realise they would have been better voting for a literal stone rather than a brown-nosing Tory lickspittle?

Rebecca Machin

Via email

GERRY Hassan in his article “Three Futures of Scotland” in the Sunday National (July 28, Seven Days) is replete with his opinions, guesswork and associated measures dressed up as analysis, all with his aim of providing a way forward on the road to independence.

He is, of course, entitled to voice his opinions and observations but what he is not entitled to do is rewrite the narrative of the strategy of the SNP in the 2024 General Election.

In this regard, I draw your attention to his comments relating to the “de facto” referendum which he describes as “one of the most egregious initiatives”. Strong words from Gerry (right). Does he understand what it proposes and the context in which it is suggested? It would serve Gerry better if he factually reported the SNP’s position on a de facto referendum.

This proposal came from Nicola Sturgeon in an address to the Scottish Parliament. Shortly after that, she demitted office. Gerry Hassan says: “It has become SNP policy, been reaffirmed by Humza Yousaf and John Swinney and was the notional policy of the party in the recent elections”

This is not the case – it was never reaffirmed by Yousaf and Swinney. In fact, the policy of the SNP was to seek a majority of seats in the election that would allow, according to them, to negotiate with the UK Government. They did not explain how this would happen or give any surety that it would.

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Numerous correspondents warned through the columns of The National that this was a flawed and dangerous prospectus. The SNP failed to explain what would happen if they failed to gain the majority of seats – now look where we are!

The de facto referendum is not a “performative policy”, as Gerry Hassan avers. It is a bona fide strategy designed to secure the support of the Scottish people for independence by the means of a plebiscite.

John Milligan

Motherwell

INEQUALITY. I loathe that word. Reason being is that word has been blandly and blithely bandied about for years now by so many politicians and political commentators who have absolutely zero intention of doing anything or inspiring others to properly deal with it.

I much prefer the following words to describe both sides of that divide – greed, never sated, never truly content, unscrupulous, ruthless, uncaring, unfeeling, unsympathetic, unempathetic, harsh and callous. On the wrong end of the inequality divide – need, relying on charity, guilt, shame, despair, helplessness, hopelessness, downtrodden and forgotten!

When Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, was asked why Labour have not set out any plans for any wealth taxes, her response was: “Because I want the Government to be about wealth creation. We want to be a government about wealth creation, and I just don’t think you can tax and spend your way into a stronger economy.” That, from a Labour Chancellor (aren’t they supposed to be socialists?!) surely has to be totally mindboggling!

Some folk might think I’ve been unduly harsh on those who have worked extremely hard to get filthy rich! They might say many of them may well make significant donations to charities, so who am I to be so judgemental?

I’ve got zero problem responding to that. If anyone who’s filthy rich genuinely cares for those less fortunate than them, they won’t merely donate to charities. That’s been done for aeons and doesn’t cut it when resolving inequality. That just perpetuates the grotesque system that made them filthy rich in the first place and condemns millions of others – and this is the vital bit – who have also worked extremely hard to grinding poverty.

They would have much more respect from me if they said: “I’ve made a mint from a grossly unfair system and to be honest I don’t actually need the vast majority of dosh that I have. I now feel really guilty about how I’ve done that on the backs of millions of hard-working souls that have made a pittance from this system. I shall, therefore, now only donate my millions to a political party that vows to bring in a significant wealth tax and strongly encourage my rich pals to do likewise.” Has that ever happened? Will that ever happen? In yer dreams! I rest my case!

The message behind my letter in relation to Scottish independence? Unless an independent Scotland can drastically cut the inequality divide – and I mean drastically – what the hell has all this been for? Are comfortably off supporters of independence – and I don’t just mean billionaires and millionaires – willing to be less comfortably off to help those fellow Scots less fortunate than them? That’s the crucial test, in my view. Ye cannae hae yer cake and eat it, as they say!

Ivor Telfer

Fife

IT cannot have escaped anyone’s attention that both sides of the pond, two self-styled ubermensch – creatures who love nothing more than to stoke hatred, cause conflict (at arm’s length), denigrate anyone less fortunate than their wealthy born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-their-gobs selves and who reserve a special reservoir of vitriol for anyone with brown skin – are in fact weird, inadequate, attention-seeking spoiled brat chaos vampires who have, somehow, clawed their way to centre stage by manipulating modern media.

If, even on a very superficial level – and I do believe it is superficial – we are looking at some sort of return to a fragile normality, the first thing both democracies need to question is how did we let this happen.

Again.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

THANK you for publishing my last letter. I know it wasn’t the best piece of work I have produced, but I was so very. very angry at the way the Labour government has done this.

If Labour really wanted to provide help – not just for those on Pension Credit ... for those with small, private pensions who are only just about managing at the moment – then they must find a way to use the existing data held by HMRC to provide a better, more generous cap. However, this would require some actual thought on the part of Starmer and his colleagues.

I have already signed the petition which Help The Aged has launched and I would urge everyone else to do the same.

Andrew Haddow

Glasgow