Yes I know, here I go again, on about education; I make no apology for it either. The Sunday Times today reports a number of schools are no longer offering science subjects at Higher level, blaming a lack of interest from pupils. Opposition politicians and education campaigners have blamed cost-cutting and argue that all schools should offer all three subjects (chemistry, physics and biology) at Higher level.
They claim failure to stimulate interest in science at school could damage Scotland's future economic growth. Too right it could! Part of a teacher's job is to know the abilities of their pupils and to encourage those with an aptitude for a certain subject to continue studying it. Back in the 60s, until you reached 5th year, you had no opinion about the subjects you studied - that was decided between the Rector, teachers and parents. The responsibility of the pupil was to do their best and produce acceptable exam results.
Nowadays pupils get so much choice they must be confused. If I was 15 again and was offered the choices many are offered today, I'd possibly still choose physics and chemistry as I found them fascinating, but I can understand youngsters opting for the 'easier' subjects such as art and media studies.
The loss of Higher science in some schools is a continuation of the dumbing down of our education system and it must be stopped. This situation is not the fault of the present Scottish government but they are the people who must turn this round, and quickly. Fiona Hyslop must get together with her academic trusties and get a strategy into place to halt this corrosion of our education standards. One idea may be to introduce the sciences in P6 andP7 and I understand a campaign with this in mind is to be unveiled soon. This has happened for years in Europe and has shown to provide results insofar as Europe produces far more science graduates than the UK (pro rata).
Of course not every young person will have an interest in the sciences, but to think that some of Glasgow's largest schools are no longer going to offer Highers in the subjects, makes me angry. Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said some schools were discouraging pupils from taking harder science subjects in order to improve their performance in exam league tables.
Ms Hyslop this crisis requires your urgent attention. Scotland, until around the late 70s/ early 80s, had a Europe-wide reputation for its excellence in educational standards. We must recover this reputation starting today as it is everyone's responsibility to ensure our children receive an education which maximises their abilities.
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6 comments:
Good post. I read this in the Sunday Times too, and am really quite concerned about it. We shouldn't be closing educational doors to any of our students, and withdrawing subjects makes it all the more difficult for young people to try everything they want to.
I steadfastly refused to settle on any one discipline at school, and did Standard Grades and Highers in English, Maths, Modern Studies, French, Biology, Chemistry, and Art and Design. I had no particular reason for the sciences, but I think doing them was probably worthwhile.
Hello Belle. It's amazing how many people will just ignore this fact. Education and its standards don't seem to concern folk.
I'm just in my early 60s and it's so noticeable the gradual drop in standards. My argument is this started when comprehensives were the flavour of the month - you know, when they squeezed academies and secondary modern scholars together into one building and what we get is mediocre. Not the fault of the pupils at all, but the fault of the system, but it's the youngsters who have lost out.
All that was needed was more flexibility between the academies and vocational schools and I hope one day subjects will again be split into academic and vocational from around the age of 13/14. Countries in Europe provide that and are way ahead of us, but then their standards are improving and ours are declining.
Belle should have said you will benefit from studying the sciences, they deepen and widen the thought processes I think.
You're too young to notice yet!
Off topic but it that a picture of Lindsay Roy and a certain register turning into ashes?
As far as education is concerned the lower the targets set the easier to attain "acceptable" standards. For decades it's the provision of education that's mattered not the standard of that provision.
Exactly brownlie you've at least hit the nail on the head! Nobody's interested though in the lack of science over the past 25years in schools. All to do with labour ruling the roost in Scotland of course.
Their mantra was 'everyone's equal in education' and that's a lie. Of course every child is owed a education but abilities aren't equal, abilities are competitive. Now we're seeing the result of years of labour educational policies.
It will take some time for the SNP and Fiona Hyslop to right the wrongs of 40+ years of labour educational policies.
Shame on Scotland that we haven't continued the excellence in education that has achieved world-wide acclaim.
It's not the fault of the SNP in the least, they've only been in government for less than 2 years, but the labour party ought to hang their heads in shame because they were the party that set the Scottish education agenda.
It's not easy for the SNP to try to right all the wrongs labour have made in Scotland over the past 50 years, but at least they're doing their very best.
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