Rare praise for Scotland's education system

Scotland's curriculum focuses on capabilities not facts

I was interested to hear the outgoing Moderator of the Church of Scotland Sally Foster, in an interview on Radio Scotland, give the Scottish education system some credit for the fact that there were no riots in Scotland earlier this month. It was rare praise -  does it have some merit? 

Scotland, unlike England, does not have a National Curriculum that lays down exactly what pupils should study in each subject at every stage. Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence directs schools and teachers to focus on developing capabilities. It is based on the notion that being able to work with others and to appraise information critically is more important than acquiring specific facts. 

Unionist politicians like to argue that Scotland’s performance in the international test we call PISA is slipping compared to England as a result of this progressive approach. They tend to over-egg that a bit in my view. The difference in the last (2022) PISA on reading was half a percentage point - Scotland’s performance in reading has been improving steadily and is now above the OECD average. It scored about average in maths and science, but 5% behind England, so probably indicating room for improvement there. Second-generation immigrants did much better than average - so attracting more of those would likely lift Scotland’s PISA scores. Also -  Ireland beat England by a few points in every subject and we don’t hear too much about that.

In 2018, PISA included a separate test designed to test what they called global competence - the ability to review complex issues and to make a constructive plan of action. On this, Scottish students scored among the top in the world. Pupils from only two countries achieved a higher score than Scotland. This - essentially thinking for yourself -  is not an easy capacity to measure and England did not submit its students to the attempt. Arguably, the riots that followed a spate of online rumours and misinformation this month were a real-world test. 

One criticism of the CfE is that it does not set out what knowledge must be acquired in each area. Knowledge is important of course - but Scotland’s subject teachers have good degrees and generally a deep interest in their areas. The building blocks students need to establish an understanding of say French or Chemistry have not changed - you start with irregular verbs or the periodic table. Teachers and schools want more support materials, training opportunities and non-contact time -  but they don’t need a step-by-step guide any more than other highly skilled professionals do.

When it comes to exams, teachers do want to know how the students they are teaching will be assessed. The OECD praised Scotland’s curriculum - but said it had not carried it through to the exam stage. That is true - Scotland retains a pattern of exams in every year of the last three secondary years.  The practice of all students sitting exams at age 16 dates from the time when most people left school then and the bit of paper functioned as a nudge to the exit door. We don’t need that nowadays. When I was at school, I sat formal exams for 17 or 18 qualifications, many in the same subjects. Exams in eight or so would seem sufficient. 

The debate over how to slim down Scotland’s exam diet is ongoing. I hope it includes classwork. One of the things I discovered in our few years in the US was that class participation contributes towards grade marks  - that is one reason that American students become so confident in speaking out. The other aspect of their education I admired was that when it comes to setting for subjects, the pupils are consulted. If you sign up to be in the top maths set, for example, you have to agree to move fast and do the homework. This seems like an approach that is consistent with the general; trend of Scottish education.

Another difference between Scotland and England is that Scotland has incorporated the UN Conventions of the Rights of the Child into law. This means, among other things, that schools and teachers have a legal duty to consult children on matters that concern them. As the debates about banning mobile phones rages, last week education minister Jenny Gilruth went into a school where students were being encouraged to monitor their phone use and to engage in the debate about the effect they have on mental health. Scotland’s Children’s Parliament did something similar with a project called “Mind Yer Time”. 

The Sunday Times journalist Decca Aitkenhead recently persuaded her sons and some of their friends to do without phones for a month. The young people seemed to have a terrifyingly clear-eyed view of the issues. The girls in particular felt that their popularity was connected to their social media use. One, Edie, told Aitkenhead: “It’s a trap. You’re stuck, because if you do escape, you’re classed as a weirdo, and you’ll fall behind on trends, you won’t understand what people are talking about.” But Aitkenhead’s experiment seemed to suggest that to be successful it would take a group of kids in the same school to work together to support each other. 

Groups of young people leading their schools and communities - and perhaps their parents - by limiting mobile phone use would be far more powerful than just putting their phones in lockers for a few hours a day. 

Another concern about how Scottish schools are working is over behaviour and how to ensure that schools are a safe and welcoming place for all. Educational businessman and former nightclub manager Tom Bennet, who was on Radio Four last week, denouncing Scotland’s curriculum in favour of a more centralised approach, sells a behaviour-improvement package. He does this very much by using the old carrot and stick, reward and punishment approach. But when behaviour management turns into a power struggle, everyone has lost.  

The UNCRC-based approach is to regard children as partners and leaders in their own learning, and to bring them on board as part of this process. Scotland’s Children’s Parliament “Dignity in Schools” programme is about creating an environment where children treat each other and their teachers with respect, based on an appreciation of their human dignity.  Maybe that is the kind of thing that Sally Foster was referencing in her praise of the Scottish education system.