“We need to remember that back in those halcyon days, while most were educated in basic literacy and numeracy, only 15% of the population go much beyond that. Essentially, the entire story from 1872 to the present day is about bridging that gap – avoiding social, cultural and intellectual exclusion. The story of the last 150 years is one of democratisation – but, of course, many problems came with that”.
Trying to bring about an equal level of education for all is “utterly admirable, but in exchange for that we diluted the quality of what we expect pupils to do to reach the various benchmarks within the system…the standards of the curriculum have steadily weakened as part of this otherwise admirable attempt to extend educational opportunity to everyone. That’s the major challenge: how do you combine rigorous standards with genuinely equal opportunities for everyone? Scotland hasn’t adequately answered that challenge.” ”
An interesting, thoughtful article totally hamstrung by that moronic clickbait headline.
Create rigid, formulaic methods of exam answering with keywords which make it easier for SQA to farm marking duties out to ‘call-centres’.
But expect independent, free-thinking young people as a result.
The first couple of years at university are spent trying to beat cfe out of students and replace it with critical analysis.
The slip in educational standards is a great shame. I don’t particularly understand why the education system needed to be reformed, and I am particularly displeased with the slip in standards in maths & science.
What with smartphones & AI we probably need to be focusing more on exams, where access to those enablers can be controlled. I say that as someone who always struggled with exams.
I think something that wasn’t really touched on in the article is there over focus on university entrance. University isn’t suitable for everyone. We need a revamp and investment into our college system. Greater diversity of high quality practical education options. I would be happy losing a couple uni’s if it meant there was an option for kids today to gain high quality (and high potential pay) practical professions. Maybe something more like Germanies technical college.
We have a back log of teachers waiting for a job yet continue to expect 1 person to maximise the learning of up to 35 youngsters.
The whole premise of 1 adult per class is a bit strange to me. You see the benefits when a classroom has learning support in there to help those with ASN. However even then with budget cuts that support vanishes.
So you have a situation where a teacher essentially has to choose which group within the class gets the support that lesson. This is because, of course, they are one person and with that many in the class it’s impossible to attend to everyone’s needs.
Yet the government/local councils remain baffled why the attainment gap keeps getting wider and wider.
You either cut class sizes down and have more classes in schools or you put consistent extra adult support in there so needs are met. Neither happens.
I heard this a few times from teachers as well.
We need to make sure those who perform well are supported and encouraged and have routes to excel.
“The standards of the curriculum have steadily weakened as part of this otherwise admirable attempt to extend educational opportunity to everyone. That’s the major challenge: how do you combine rigorous standards with genuinely equal opportunities for everyone? Scotland hasn’t adequately answered that challenge.”
>Paterson points out that it’s long been accepted that “mass democracy” requires “mass education”. He adds: “There will be an increasingly large minority who won’t be adequately informed to be democratic citizens. That’s deplorable.”
It creates a risk of growing populism through the collapse of rational debate.
6 comments
“We need to remember that back in those halcyon days, while most were educated in basic literacy and numeracy, only 15% of the population go much beyond that. Essentially, the entire story from 1872 to the present day is about bridging that gap – avoiding social, cultural and intellectual exclusion. The story of the last 150 years is one of democratisation – but, of course, many problems came with that”.
Trying to bring about an equal level of education for all is “utterly admirable, but in exchange for that we diluted the quality of what we expect pupils to do to reach the various benchmarks within the system…the standards of the curriculum have steadily weakened as part of this otherwise admirable attempt to extend educational opportunity to everyone. That’s the major challenge: how do you combine rigorous standards with genuinely equal opportunities for everyone? Scotland hasn’t adequately answered that challenge.” ”
An interesting, thoughtful article totally hamstrung by that moronic clickbait headline.
Create rigid, formulaic methods of exam answering with keywords which make it easier for SQA to farm marking duties out to ‘call-centres’.
But expect independent, free-thinking young people as a result.
The first couple of years at university are spent trying to beat cfe out of students and replace it with critical analysis.
The slip in educational standards is a great shame. I don’t particularly understand why the education system needed to be reformed, and I am particularly displeased with the slip in standards in maths & science.
What with smartphones & AI we probably need to be focusing more on exams, where access to those enablers can be controlled. I say that as someone who always struggled with exams.
I think something that wasn’t really touched on in the article is there over focus on university entrance. University isn’t suitable for everyone. We need a revamp and investment into our college system. Greater diversity of high quality practical education options. I would be happy losing a couple uni’s if it meant there was an option for kids today to gain high quality (and high potential pay) practical professions. Maybe something more like Germanies technical college.
We have a back log of teachers waiting for a job yet continue to expect 1 person to maximise the learning of up to 35 youngsters.
The whole premise of 1 adult per class is a bit strange to me. You see the benefits when a classroom has learning support in there to help those with ASN. However even then with budget cuts that support vanishes.
So you have a situation where a teacher essentially has to choose which group within the class gets the support that lesson. This is because, of course, they are one person and with that many in the class it’s impossible to attend to everyone’s needs.
Yet the government/local councils remain baffled why the attainment gap keeps getting wider and wider.
You either cut class sizes down and have more classes in schools or you put consistent extra adult support in there so needs are met. Neither happens.
I heard this a few times from teachers as well.
We need to make sure those who perform well are supported and encouraged and have routes to excel.
“The standards of the curriculum have steadily weakened as part of this otherwise admirable attempt to extend educational opportunity to everyone. That’s the major challenge: how do you combine rigorous standards with genuinely equal opportunities for everyone? Scotland hasn’t adequately answered that challenge.”
>Paterson points out that it’s long been accepted that “mass democracy” requires “mass education”. He adds: “There will be an increasingly large minority who won’t be adequately informed to be democratic citizens. That’s deplorable.”
It creates a risk of growing populism through the collapse of rational debate.
Well that’s worrying.
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