YOUR table of Scottish Higher results ("West coast schools top of the class in latest Higher results", The Herald, March 8) made interesting reading. However, the figures also reinforced the argument that the main factor impacting on educational achievement is socio-economic deprivation. This belief was brilliantly supported in Steven Camley's insightful cartoon on the same day where he rightly pinpoints the reason for the attainment gap as being the existence of a "£200,000 mortgage".

No country has ever totally eradicated its attainment gap, although there are undoubtedly various strategies that can be employed to mitigate against it, which may result in it being narrowed. The recent initiatives being employed by the Scottish Government will therefore, in time, hopefully show some positive results. However, as the table of Higher results clearly showed, the better off the background of the pupil, the better are the Higher results. Believe me, as someone who taught in Scottish secondary schools for almost 40 years, you don't need to be a genius, or embark on years of expensive research, to come to such a conclusion.

Hence, it seems clear to me that the best way to narrow the attainment gap is to narrow the social and economic inequalities that exist to cause such a gap in the first place. Now, of course, this won't be easy and it will take a multi-agency approach and a lot of time to achieve. Nevertheless, we must ask ourselves whether the possibility of effectively tackling income inequality can be achieved under the control of a Conservative Government dedicated to benefit cuts, the encouragement of low-income economy, huge spending on weapons of mass destruction, wasting vast quantities on the House of Lords, the monarchy and the desire to hurl us into the maelstrom of a hard Brexit. Add to this the dire state of the Labour Party and its inability to effectively tackle this surge of right-wing politics, due to the fact that it would find it difficult to organise an empty box.

Social, economic and income disparities in Scotland can only be effectively mitigated through the conduit of self-determination for Scotland. We would then have the ability to choose a government for ourselves, whatever party that may be, that would find itself in control of all economic, political and international levers. Hopefully, we could then redirect our share of the money currently wasted on Trident, HS2, the House of Lords, the monarchy and so on and direct it into creating a fairer, more equal and inclusive society where the attainment gap would still exist, but due to a reduction in deprivation, it wouldn't be as wide as it is today.

This option does not exist to us as long as we remain part of this dysfunctional and iniquitous Union. An independent Scotland would not be the "land of milk and honey" that many Unionists jeer about. Independence would be tough, but it would then be up to us to search for the solutions, just like every other self-determinant nation on earth does. We are more than capable of such challenges and don't let anyone tell you that we're not!

Alan Carroll,

24 The Quadrant, Clarkston, Glasgow.

CONGRATULATIONS to my own alma mater, Jordanhill School, for once again coming top of the league for the number of Highers passes in state-funded schools in Scotland.

Of course some will argue that this is all down to wealthy parents buying success, but that is a gross over-simplification. The key factor is not money, as you cannot buy intelligence or effort, nor hire a better standard of teacher. I am sure the rector and all the teaching staff at Jordanhill do an excellent job, but no doubt that could also be said of the large majority of teachers in other schools with less successful results.

What makes the difference is the positive support of parents for the school and for their own children, taking an active interest and encouraging them in their studies. That is the essential factor, and sadly such parental support seems to be lacking elsewhere, with parents showing little or no interest in their children’s progress, and unable or unwilling to help and encourage them in their studies. I believe that is the principal reason for the so-called attainment gap, not wealth or privilege. There is relatively little that government policies, local authorities or more investment can do to solve that problem except over a very long time-scale.

Jordanhill School’s progress is the more remarkable in that it has twice been threatened with closure in the past 50 years, once by a Labour government in the late 1960s and again by the Conservatives in the mid-1980s. Glasgow’s Labour councillors also refused to accept the school into the local authority education system. In both cases it was not money but the practical support of parents that was critical in saving the school, in the latter case by setting up a form of elective governance comprising school staff, parents and outside representatives which is still in successful operation today.

Iain A D Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.