My children were educated in Stornoway, and such problems as they had were not the fault of the school. On an Island there is no choice, but the more articulate parents and the parents who are teachers send their children to the same school as everyone else. That keeps standards up.

My granddaughter has just completed her first year at school in Glasgow. It is in one of the better-off areas admittedly, but we and the parents have nothing but praise for the entire operation.

I myself went to an independent school. It wasn’t obvious to me at the time that it was a great advantage. The really gifted had a higher level of support, but the music tuition in the Corporation schools was far more developed.

I did get to know interesting people: four MP’s, two murderers and a spy.

We know that the only predictor of success at school and university is the level of parental education, so the likelihood is that most places in Scotland you would be wasting your money on private schools.

The SNP policy is to preserve rural schools and to avoid busing children. In cities where there are several schools within 1 or 2 miles then closure and amalgamation is an option.

In a village with a small school and nothing for ten miles then retention is the only real way forward. As far as I am aware with the possible exception of the Tories no one is seriously advocating any new faith or sponsored schools for Scotland.

In fact we don’t have any city academies and virtually no grammar schools. As far as I am aware we don’t really have middle schools either, it’s just primary 5 to 11 with a nursery for 3 and 4 year olds now pretty much the norm and after that it’s secondary school from 12 to 16 or later.

Beyond that there are traditional private schools. Independent schools in Scotland only educate just over 30,000 pupils out of 715,000 in primary and secondary , about 4%.

Peter.

It’s not that more educated people “work the system” more than less educated people.

The finding-if I understood it correctly-is that they tend to take up places in the independent schools more than do those with a less educated background.

I don’t find that surprising.

What is important is that the impetus for higher standards imparted by the independent schools to all local schools ( which the report acknowledges) works to the benefit of all-including those who are unable to appreciate the significane, or essential features of, good educational standards.

I found it most interesting that Swedes can talk unashamedly of “better educated” and “less well educated” as features of society, without resorting to value judgements about those conditions, or expressing them in terms of “class”

Your reference to “public schools” is interesting-but not relevant to the Tory proposal-or the Swedish Model.

These independent schools are available to all parents who may may take their state funding with them.I understand that they will be non-selective-though I sincerely hope will be allowed to stream by academic ability.

For what it’s worth, I firmly believe that public schools generally leave less to chance than state schools (having been to one, and done a spot of teaching in both).

What I’d prefer to see is much greater adoption in the state sector of what public schools do better.

“School Choice and it’s effects in Sweden”-

It gave me a “do you mean” to correct the punctuation-and the first search result is the paper in question.

Try again

Colin, that is so unfair. Almost all the parents I know, or know of, who send their kids through the “standard” state school route do so because they trust the system, don’t understand how to play the system (or can’t afford to) or have a sincere desire to give their child what he/she wants, which in many cases is to be with their friends. There are very few parents out there who have “no interest”.

I don’t think Cameron intends to polarise society deliberately – I’m sure he and Gove hold their views as sincerely as you. However, I think they’re after improving the lot of parents who try and fail to get their kids into the best schools – mostly middle class parents with elbows not sharp enough, and mostly in winnable seats.

Thanks for the link

While I support every word of your lengthy posting, you omitted one aspect of Scottish educational provision.

The notion of providing faith and other specialist schools “Choice” in rural areas with falling school rolls is simply daft. It may seem a good idea to those who can travel a short distance to several schools in their Chelsea Tractors, but where you have to take the kids down roads where there are real tractors the issue is whether the nearest school will close because of falling school rolls.

“Scotland does’nt show any trend that is seen nationally apart from the UK wide disintegration of the Labour Party.

Any growth in the SNP vote at this by-election is purely on the back of the Labour demise – they are one and the same ideology wise.”

So what about the massive swing to the conservatives and a twelvefold increase in their seats? Have you fotgotten that?

I have just read a very interesting review of the Swedish system & it’s effects.It is very balanced and does highlight the areas of contention. I don’t seem able to cut & paste it. If you are interested Google for “School Choice and it’s effects in Sweden”-by The Swedish National Agency for Education.

Gove has said the Conservative plan would provide for additional funding ( on top of the per capita allowance taken with the pupil) for schools set up in “deprived” areas.

This would appear to address the potential for the “rats leaving the sinking hulk” syndrome.Given that-and most parents’ desire to have their child go to school as near to home as possible,provided it meets their educational requirements-one could hope that standards would be driven up in difficult areas.

However, the Swedish paper I mentioned concedes that uptake for independent schools is greatest amongst parents with a good educational background.So if it is indeed possible to focus the motivation of better educated parents onto poor local education provision then standards could be driven up in general in the area of the new school.

The Swedish paper indicates that this can happen-but it is very much depends on how resistant local authorities are.

The downside,as made clear in the Swedish study, can be increased segregation.

This will have to be handled with care & sensitivity-but in the end there is a political philosophy here-The parent should be able to choose the school & not the otherway round.That choice will drive up standards of education.

But of course, the choice has to be real, and freely excercisable by all. If those criteria are met, then we are back to the problems arising in our society which result from those parents who have no interest or understanding in improving their child’s education.

ie inadequate or non-existent parenting.

The latter is a problem which stretches far beyond education & is at the root of many many problems.

Incidentally I completely disagree with the view of Tory motivation expressed in paras 2&3 of your 3.14pm
I believe sincerely that this initiative is part of an over-arching attack on social segregation & all it’s effects.The objective is “Social Justice” as outlined by IDS’ think tank.

Solving these problems will be massively difficult-some may be insoluble-some of the ideas may not work-we shall see.

But I can see no justification whatsoever to assume that they are aimed at deliberately polarising society even more than it currently is.