Much has been said and written about the apparent decline in educational standards in Scotland as presented by the latest PISA results. Before the SNP diehards leap to their keyboards to quote statistics may I offer the following facts. I will comment only on that subject in which I have expertise, music.

Music benefits from external programmes of study that is to the curriculum set by the state, those being for classical study: Associated Boards for Jazz – Trinity College and for Popular/Rock – Rockschool. Each has eight grades and subsequently diploma courses.

Under the traditional Higher, the performance standard set for O-Grade was Grades 4/5 (Intermediate) and for Higher, Grades 7/8 (Advanced). It was accepted that the leap from O-Grade (4/5) to Higher (7/8) was considerable bearing in mind that the usual rate of progress is one grade per year and so, under the ‘5-14 Programme’, Standard Grades, Higher and Advanced Higher, it was deemed that the standard for Higher would be reduced to Grade 6 with the opportunity to gain Grades 7/8 in Sixth Year.

Under Curriculum for Excellence, this standard has been reduced further to “at least Grade 4”. What was the lower end of the traditional O-Grade is now deemed to be of Higher standard. Conscientious teachers grasped the one redeeming feature of that statement, the words “at least” and totally ignored the “Grade 4”, knowing full well that adherence to such would result in a gap the breadth of the Grand Canyon for those pupils intent on further study.

In music at least, there was a time when state sector pupils could smoothly proceed to under-graduate study. In the drive to make music ‘accessible’ to all, the result has been to deny those wishing, the possibility of further study, a mistake not repeated in the private sector.

Maureen McGarry-O'Hanlon, Jamestown

Read more: Letters: At last – a bit of common sense on heat pumps

Worry over heat pumps is not right-wing

I was taken aback by Rebecca McQuillan’s article on the Scottish Government’s promotion of heat pumps (The Herald, December 7). Anyone like me genuinely concerned about the costs and consequences of retrofitting heat pump technology are now being lumped together with climate change deniers and viewed as block-headed technophobes resisting new technology.

Listening to Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings Patrick Harvie’s attempts to badger and coerce us into undertaking expensive modifications to our homes to his timetable and not ours, and at our cost not his, is frankly deeply troubling. He has the power to introduce laws and regulations making our homes effectively unsaleable unless we fall into line.

He seems not to care about the impact on people’s finances and lives, presumably feeling that the Scottish Greens' dogma of “let the polluter pay” justifies piling the cost on private homeowners. He glibly says the Scottish Government’s grants are generous, yet rarely mentions how for the majority of homeowners not on one or other of the qualifying benefits, no such grants are available. Nor does he highlight how the real cost to do the job properly will likely be a multiple of the value of those grants.

For anyone who is retired, the cost of installing heat pumps retrospectively will make a significant hole in their savings, potentially undermining their future financial security.

I also read the previous day’s article by Robin McAlpine of the Common Weal think tank – not known for being right-wing – in which he argues against heat pumps for individual homes, instead making the case for heating networks. Interestingly, even Mr Harvie appeared to concede that heating networks could eventually be the best bet for people living in towns and cities during his interview on last week’s BBC Sunday Show.

At a stroke, he appeared to give people living in urban areas a free pass to ignore all his threats and cajoling on heat pumps, apparently content to leave our rural communities to carry the burden of decarbonising their homes.

It seems if you own your home, have savings, and live in the countryside, you are considered fair game for Mr Harvie’s ecological blackmail, and if you express concerns some will happily brand you right-wing.

For me, converting to a heat pump would involve a substantial financial outlay to give me a system that is environmentally friendly but potentially not up to the task of keeping my house warm. Triple-glazing my property at the same time might help rectify that, but the payback on the overall capital cost would be unlikely to be met in my lifetime. These challenges represent serious risks and uncertainties for people who want to do the right thing, but only when they are convinced of getting value for money.

Keith Howell, West Linton

Who really won war in the East?

James Quinn (Letters, December 11) says it's a fact that "Stalin defeated Hitler in the east".

The renowned historian Sir Antony Beevor established that even Stalin, Zhukov and Khrushchev admitted they would have lost the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk in 1942-43 (and therefore presumably the eastern front) without the massive shipments of grain, tinned foods, medicines, armaments, tanks, steel for their own T-34 tank, plus 4,000 warplanes and 430,000 vehicles, all delivered from the USA and UK by 1,507 ships in 78 convoys, many from north-west Scotland to Murmansk and Archangelsk - Churchill's "worst journey in the world".

So it could be more accurate to say that the USA's industrial strength won the war in the east, as well as in the west, albeit greatly assisted by the UK, Commonwealth and others. Sadly and ironically, these convoy shipments also enabled the Soviets to reach Berlin and Eastern Europe before the UK or USA, with the unintended results we all still suffer from today, particularly in Ukraine and Belarus as well as Russia itself.

John Birkett, St. Andrews

Read more: Surely now we will waken up to the failings of CfE

Being nice: a gentle reminder

The run-up to Christmas is always a really busy time for retail workers, as shoppers can be stressed and things can boil over. The timing of Christmas this year means we anticipate especially busy stores the week before.

I want to gently ask readers to remember that shopworkers are people too. They will be working really hard to make your shopping experience as enjoyable as possible and deserve respect.

Talking to our members who work in retail, I know that verbal abuse cuts deep. Many will go home after a shift upset about an unpleasant incident that took place at work that day and worried that it will happen to them again.

Paddy Lillis, general secretary, Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers