Education: all is not well

An article in the Evening News yesterday prompts a brief post on education.

First let me say I appreciate the great work done by many within our education system.  But overall our system is not working well.   The article in question was highlighting the widening results gap between best and worst schools in Edinburgh.   You can see my comments reported in the article.  (The suggestion elsewhere in the article suggesting that part of the answer is the  Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) - paying children to go to school - needs to be contested.)

It is our system which is jaded.  A system which has at its heart the mantras

• one size fits all, 
• the educational authority (or government) knows best (at least better than parents)
• we can freshen up our system with new initiatives (Curriculum for Excellence, 'self assessment' etc)
• process is more important than people

Certainly we need to change our system.  But it needs to be to a system which allows parents to make real choices (beyond just buying a house in a good school catchment area), and which allows teachers to use their creative initiative to educate - and be held accountable.

Note: The recent OECD report which suggests Scotland is slipping down the international league table is here.