YOUR report on university drop-out rates (“Scottish universities record worst drop-out rates in UK”, The Herald, March 10) must surely help persuade the Scottish Government that its obsession with a university-for-all policy is encouraging the misdirected veneration of what is for many, a false deity.
If the SNP is so keen to consistently look critically towards decisions made in England perhaps it might now reconsider the appropriateness of post-school education for individual pupils.
In his recent Budget, Chancellor Hammond has provided £500 million per year investment towards developing and modernising technical education in England.
This innovation is a key factor in implementing the recommendations of the independent review of post-16 technical education chaired by Lord Sainsbury. The outcome will represent significant steps towards targeting the parity gap in England between the perceived status of this area and academic qualifications.
The Scottish Government must accept that Scottish education is being left behind by its own stuffy intransigence. The pretentious value of university education blinds our politicians to the reality of learning as a utility for life. They often do a disservice by reducing university entrance requirements for certain pupils. I feel that our Scottish further education colleges are implicitly treated as the Cinderella provision while specific pupils from schools in deprived areas are being hoodwinked by what is essentially a social experiment worthy of the pen of George Bernard Shaw.
How much of the additional £350m which the Chancellor has given Scotland in his Budget will be devolved by Holyrood to a similar bold programme? Will the Scottish Government address the relative value of technical and vocational education and hence regenerate our manufacturing economy and job opportunities post Brexit? I suspect I already know the answer.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
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