IT WAS cruel, I know, but I couldn't resist it. When my eldest boy finally surfaced from his bed on Thursday morning, I casually told him: "There's a teachers' strike, son – the schools are shut." I paused just a second before adding: "In England." W
ell, it's part of a father's job to prepare his child for life's disappointments.
By coincidence, on the same day that my son trudged to school demanding that the entire family move down south, changes were being announced that could have a profound impact, not just on his future but on that of every child in Scotland. They also, to my mind, represented the first decent idea to come out of the SNP Government so far.
Forget the smoke and mirrors about student debt and police numbers – to say nothing of the meaningless guff about Scotland being "more confident" under Alex Salmond. As for the local council tax, that is an innovation – but a bad one. No, Fiona Hyslop's plans for the exam system represent the first significant SNP policy that could genuinely improve Scots' lives.
The Education Secretary wants to kill off standard grades and the intermediate qualifications which kids are directed towards if they're not deemed smart enough to go for Highers. Instead, when they reach S4, brighter pupils will immediately start to work towards their Highers, which can be sat over a more flexible period than the current "two-term dash".
Meanwhile, in the most eye-catching part of Hyslop's plan, the rest of S4 will study for new Scottish certificates, designed to guarantee minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. This is way overdue and was welcomed by business leaders who have long bemoaned the quality of school leaver entering the jobs market. It should also be embraced by anyone who has stood, muttering under their breath, as a till jockey has struggled to work out the change from a pound for a pint of milk.
And if anyone seriously doubts that many Scots have a poor grasp of figures and language, I'd direct them to a little-noticed report published last month by the Scottish Government. It showed that numeracy was so bad among 39% of men and 36% of women that it hindered their employment and life prospects; this soared to 65% and 77% when it came to numeracy. That's 2.9 million Scots who can't count and 150,000 who can't read and write well.
Perhaps most worryingly, the report, New Light on Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland, surveyed not today's teenagers but Scots born in 1970. These are people in their thirties – a group now passing on their "skills" to their own children. If we are not to fail this next generation, Hyslop's plans deserve support as they undergo consultation this autumn.
As a former education correspondent, I know the teaching unions have a history of obstructing reform and could easily delay what is already an unambitious proposed launch date of 2012 for the new exams. The most Jurassic of them, the Educational Institute of Scotland, voiced concern in 2006 when Jack McConnell proposed similar tests on the '3Rs'.
But the great irony of this likely opposition is that, if anything, the proposals do not go far enough. For a start, Hyslop said the Scottish certificates "should draw upon evidence from young people's work across the curriculum" and would only "in part be assessed externally through an examination".
Now, I understand that some candidates freeze on the day of an exam and are unable to show how much they have learned over the year. So I can see why course work might be considered in subjects which involve accumulated knowledge, such as history, mathematics and the sciences. But reading, writing and basic arithmetic? Surely you can either do them or you can't – and ability can be properly tested at any time, without any need for advance notice, let alone cramming.
Who said school should be easy? In fact, I'd go a step further and make obtaining a Scottish certificate a requirement for graduation from school, except for pupils with learning difficulties. I'm not advocating having twenty-something wasters whiling away their lives in class, but the prospect of being held back for a year or two would sharpen most teenage minds.
A last thought: one advantage Hyslop did not dwell on when she unveiled her new system is that high achievers will be, to all intents and purposes, split from their peers at the age of 14 or 15. Is this a breach in the comprehensive school system? Hold on, son – that's something that would spark a teachers' strike in Scotland.
The full article contains 795 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
