There is a pattern in the SNP’S introduction of new laws in Scotland. What happens is that a minority pressure group divorced from the commonsense thinking of the overwhelming majority of Scots comes up with a demand and convinces indolent politicians that it will be great and good.
We have seen the this in the named person scheme, minimum unit pricing, anti-oil and gas production, anti-wood stoves, gender change, hate crime legislation, Gaelic signage, numerous green issues and anti-motorist plans. In the offing another pressure group insists that a new compulsory subject, climate change, must be introduced into the school curriculum.
Step forward “Teach the Future Scotland”, part of Teach the Future UK, Curriculum for a Changing Climate which is pressurising the education secretary, Jenny Gilruth, to include “climate justice” across the curriculum and “the climate emergency” in teacher training, prioritise “sustainability” in school inspections, and prioritise all schools to be retrofitted to meet net zero targets.
As a retired geography teacher I think this is a very bad idea. Leaving to one side the fact that there is no climate emergency, but there is climate alarmism, if followed, all these demands would make education worse.
Last December, after the latest PISA report, the BBC’S James Cook said “Scotland’s performance in maths, science, and reading has been on a downward trend for 15 years”. He should have added, “since the SNP government took power”. The last thing Ms Gilruth should do is adopt Teach the Future Scotland’s manifesto.
Five years ago pupils were allowed to walk out of school to protest about the government’s supposed lack of action in “tackling climate change”. The walk-out caused disruption to routine and contributed to indiscipline, a major problem today in some of our city schools. Pupils go to school to learn, not to engage in virtue signalling, and the basics of behaviour, numeracy and literacy should come first.
What is required is not additional extra burdens on teachers, but a concentration on the basics.
Do less, do what worked in the past, and do it better.
William Loneskie Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire
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