LES Reid (Letters, November 12) is being very unfair to Scottish schools – and to Scottish secondary teachers. It is simply not true to state that “but all his (Fraser Grant’s) figures are results of examinations set here and marked by teachers who are happy to see their schools appear to do so well.” This seems to imply that Scottish teachers are acting inappropriately when it comes to marking external examinations set by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). The SQA arrangements are such that no teacher is allocated papers from their own school.
Mr Reid then refers to the Pisa international testing programme in reading, maths and science. The difficulty in drawing conclusions from the published results is that you simply are not comparing like with like. There are so many localised factors to consider such as the curriculum; the national exam requirements; staffing standards; teacher qualifications; school funding; the impact of deprivation; the approach to integration; school organisation and so on.
Finally, there is the pressure that can be placed on schools, teachers and pupils to improve the Pisa test scores and perhaps to "teach to the test". This pressure can have a very damaging effect, particularly on pupils. Is it any coincidence that four of the top performers in the Pisa tables – South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong – have the highest pupil suicide rates in the world? Last year in Japan 250 children in elementary, middle and high schools committed suicide. Statistics for the year 2014 showed for the first time that suicide was the most common cause of death among those aged 10 to 19. The report noted that teachers were just too busy to offer the kind of pastoral support that is one of the strengths of our Scottish schools.
With two young grandchildren now in the Japanese education system, these figures are a cause of some concern for my wife and me. On visits to see our family it is clear that there is a lot of pressure on pupils to work and to achieve – but at what cost? Parents are pressurised to purchase additional homework programmes to be completed on top of their normal school course work. It is a regular occurrence on Saturdays and Sundays to see Tokyo schoolchildren in uniform on their way for extra revision either at school or at special private classes. Waiting for a train to take my wife and me to Narita Airport we once saw a forlorn little girl in school uniform and with a large satchel on her back waiting on a neighbouring platform. It was 6.30 in the morning.
Of course there are problems and challenges to be faced in Scottish education. The last few years have seen secondary schools coming to terms with a major overhaul to the curriculum and to the national examinations; a task undertaken against the background of Westminster-imposed austerity. Our teachers and pupils deserve much credit for what they are achieving.
Eric Melvin, Edinburgh EH10.
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