IT made for disturbing listening both for Education Secretary John Swinney and the public.
Marie, a mother of twins, contacted a live radio phone-in with Mr Swinney to raise the treatment of her disabled daughter at school.
Now educating her children at home, Marie told the minister her daughter was given little or no help despite being unable to get dressed or go to the toilet.
She said: “When there was no learning assistant about her class teacher asked her twin to take her to the toilet. Obviously at 10-years-old … both of them were very upset.
“She was left in the changing room, the teacher never got her changed, her twin had to do that, then got in trouble for taking too long.
“If she approached a supply teacher to ask for help they would say a child of her age should be able to get dressed herself.”
Mr Swinney said her experiences were “totally unacceptable” and pledged to look into the situation.
“Individual local authorities have got to make the assessment of how to fulfil the needs of individual children, but what you’ve recounted to me is very clearly not acceptable,” he said.
It was one of a number of difficult calls Mr Swinney fielded during his hour-long appearance on BBC Scotland’s Kaye Adams Show, hosted by Stephen Jardine.
Mr Swinney conceded it had been a challenging time in Scottish education and it was clear the parents, grandparents and teachers who phoned in from across the country shared that view.
Lesley, from the Scottish Borders, said pupils were being placed under too much exam pressure and were not taught properly.
She said her granddaughters had sat exams with questions that had not been covered by their school.
Mr Swinney stressed the importance of pupils being supported and said they should be fully taught courses.
“But they’re not,” came the frustrated reply. “I don’t think the system is working and it is punishing children very badly. It is robbing them of their confidence.”
Susan, a primary school teacher and headteacher for 39 years, accused Mr Swinney of failing to address workload pressures and teacher shortages.
She said the profession was “haemorrhaging” teachers because morale was “so low”, telling Mr Swinney: “You have a real crisis with recruitment and retention.”
“A number of my friends started out as teachers at the same time I did and out of all of those talented committed individuals I was the only one that lasted until 60.
“I don’t hear anything there that you have said this morning that would convince me that you have got a handle on this.”
Another listener from North Lanarkshire texted to say her secondary school had been short of a chemistry teacher for five years.
Mr Swinney said he accepted teaching was demanding, but said he had engaged with teachers to reduce their workload.
He added: “What we have got us a very challenging period in education. We have some staff shortages,” he said.
Predictably, Mr Swinney was also put under pressure on primary school testing.
The Education Secretary said the assessments would help teachers identify issues as pupils progressed, but there was strong opposition.
Tommy, a teacher from the Highlands, said the tests jarred with current classroom practice.
“The requirement for recording assessments in primary school is bordering on the ridiculous. It’s another thing added to the list.”
And Stuart, who starts a primary school teaching qualification on Monday, said he had “real worries” arguing the tests were “not needed and not wanted”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel