Liam Kerr, education spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, says Scotland had a "world-leading" education system. I am much older than he is but do not know when that was the case and what criteria he uses to justify this opinion.

I spent 13 years as a pupil in Scottish schools, six of them in a selective academy. My schooling did little to prepare me for "real life". Teachers had scant experience beyond school. Few had ever done anything else. They spoke only of their subjects and did not encourage questions. Authoritarianism prevailed.

We did not learn to think, critically or creatively, and knew nothing of biology, geology , politics, economics, sociology psychology or philosophy, I never heard of Galileo, Hutton, Hume, Darwin, evolution, or the Scottish Enlightenment. Boys were not taught to cook or type.

There was no "personal and social education", guidance teachers or careers advice. Each day started with a religious assembly which was a waste of time. I was bored, insecure, shy and lacking in social skills. Emotions were never discussed.

There was a kind of "political indoctrination" in that we learned: nothing of the Highland clearances, the Irish and Indian famines and uprisings, or treatment of native peoples. We were expected to revere the Empire and be proud of being British, residents of Canada, Australia and New Zealand were referred to as "Colonials".

However, by swotting before exams I gained five Highers and then an MA. There were then few jobs available so I became a teacher. The "training" was near useless so I just copied my own teachers.

I taught in England for some years but the only differences from Scotland I found were in the terminology and the use of the cane rather than the strap. Use of this was allowed until 1986.

I lived in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia and visited about 80 other countries on six continents. Nowhere did I hear any reference to Scottish education. I doubt anyone knew it was different from the English version. Only in Scotland have I heard anyone make the kind of claim Mr Kerr does, It is as much a myth as is Braveheart. Scotland no more "lead the world" in education than it did in ballet, baseball or gourmet cookery.

I don’t believe that education is best judged by exam results and think that in Scotland it is far better than ever before . Teachers are much more capable, broad-minded, inventive, and approachable. The proportion of pupils entering universities is ten times what it was in my time

Alan Mathieson, Glasgow

Alarming drift to the right

The resignation of Minister for Immigration Robert Jenrick reminds me of a remark he made on Radio 4 on 25 October, in response to a question about the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s response. He said: “We can’t suggest there’s any reason why it happened, or any moral equivalence between the innocent civilians living in Israel and the Hamas terrorists.”

What arrant nonsense. If we don’t explore the reasons for the shocking attack on the Israeli kibbutzim we won’t find solutions that might prevent it happening again. And I’ve yet to hear anyone suggesting there’s moral equivalence between innocent Israeli civilians and Hamas terrorists, though many argue that innocent Palestinians deserve to live, too.

I’m alarmed by the growth of the right wing of the Conservative Party. It’s in line with a trend we’ve seen across Europe and the Americas, with right-wing populists stoking fear, division and hate. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman demonised refugees and claimed people who lived on the streets were making a lifestyle choice; Rishi Sunak was remarkably slow in sacking her, demonstrating his own weakness.

This Tory drift to the right dates back to Boris Johnson’s purge of moderates in September 2019, when the likes of Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve and Rory Stewart had the whip removed and could no longer sit as Conservative MPs. That rightward drift has accelerated as the Tories desperately seek to avert the electoral catastrophe that all the polls predict awaits them next year. Rishi Sunak is powerless to prevent that drift and is following on behind, trying to save his own position. If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t put money on him being successful.

We should all be concerned about where this Tory government is leading the UK. We intend to break international law on refugees, we give unquestioning support to war crimes in Gaza and, in the domestic arena, the government is severely restricting the right of workers to take strike action, so they’ll become forced labour. For all its failings, at least we haven’t seen that hard-right drift at Holyrood, and the parliament has generally tried to be centrist and progressive. Surveys say that, in terms of societal attitudes, Scotland is very similar to England. Maybe it was, but hopefully we are now moving in a different direction.

Doug Maughan, Dunblane

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Publish the plan without delay

This year’s COP climate conference has finally recognised our urgent need to transform our food system if we're going to have any chance of keeping 1.5 degree alive, restore nature and biodiversity and equitably feed households and communities throughout the globe.

Humza Yousaf has a great story to tell. At COP26, Scotland led the way on loss and damage, leading to a new fund at COP28. At COP26, Scotland also launched the Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate, paving the way for a greater focus on food today.

Last June the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Good Food Nation Act which brings together food policies from across Government to tackle climate, nature, health and social justice.

This is progress. But 18 months after the Act was passed we are impatient for the publication of the draft Good Food Nation Plan. The Scottish Food Coalition urges the Scottish Government to publish the draft plan without further delay and to work with the members of the Scottish Food Coalition to deliver a fairer, healthier, greener and more sustainable food system for all.  

Professor Mary Brennan, Chair, Scottish Food Coalition

An alternative to Edinburgh’s pandas

It may sound a bit curmudgeonly (for which no apology) but don’t you think that the departure of the two Pandas was a little overdone by the media and some members of the public? Of course, the beasts are cuddly and cute, but the coverage seemed more appropriate for a state funeral or coronation with similar emotional outpourings.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pandas and concluded that zoos are actually quite depressing places, a relic from the Victorian freak shows. The big beasts look mournful and bored, just lolling about in a manufactured environment and strange climate, all for our voyeuristic pleasure.

Surely in this age of AI and virtual reality the boffins could create a virtual experience showing us the animals in their natural habitat. This would be more educational and, dare I say it, entertaining than staring at them lying inert in a cage in Corstorphine.

Keith Swinley, Ayr

Remember who was in charge

At the Covid inquiry in London, Boris Johnson acknowledges serious errors over decisions he made in 2020 and 2021. On social media, angry individuals rush to blame him for suffering, tragedy, and deaths experienced in Scotland as a consequence of Covid during and between lockdowns. However, let us not lose sight of the fact that, as per the Scotland Act, health is fully devolved to Holyrood. Nicola Sturgeon, not Johnson, held centre stage north of the border in pandemic management. She determinedly and repeatedly chose to do things differently in Scotland to other parts of the UK.

Sadly, I have first-hand experience of Sturgeon's Covid decision-making. My father-in-law law was resident in a Scottish care home when she took her decision to discharge untested patients and, indeed, those who had tested positive for Covid 19 from hospitals into care homes housing the frail and vulnerable.

The overarching purpose of Covid inquiries at a pan-UK level and on individual nation bases is broad in scope in that it aims to examine the response to and the impact of the Covid pandemic. However, in scrutinising specific decisions made and consequential actions regarding Covid, let's remember Sturgeon and the SNP establishment, if not wholly responsible for events in Scotland, were undoubtedly very substantially in charge of decision-making about what happened here and must be, as Johnson and his colleagues are, held accountable for their actions. I implore Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon, and their spin-doctor teams: remember that nearly 18,000 people died from Covid 19 in Scotland alone: please, for once, no SNP whitewash.

Martin Redfern, Melrose

Can we blame a loving Creator?

In response to Mr Parkin’s question in The Herald, December 7th, “Where is God in all this?”, I offer my own understanding of this question which has understandably vexed many people over the 2,000 years or so since Christ walked the earth.

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Christ replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’’ (Matthew 22:37-39)

God does not force us to follow his commandments but with grace he gives us complete freedom to do so or not, allowing us to make our own decisions. If he worked in any other way then we’d be no more than automatons.

If we all followed these two commandments, then such hate, war and destruction as we are witnessing in Israel and Palestine just now, would never arise.

Do we blame a loving Creator because he has given us that freedom to choose? If anything, it emphasises his great love for us and our disregard for him.

Sheila Wallace, DCS (Deacon of the Church of Scotland), Blair Atholl

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Ask yourself: where is man?

Malcolm Parkin (Letters, December 7) asks a question that is both intriguing and seemingly impossible to answer in reference to the horror of the Israel/Palestine war: where is God in all this? The following may help.

When Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was asked where God was at Auschwitz-Birkenhau, he replied: "God was in the command ‘you shall not murder'. God was in the words 'you shall not oppress the stranger'. The final solution was devised by a group of men round a table, including doctors of medicine and philosophy. The question that haunts me is 'Where is man?'"

Stephen Cotter, Dumfries