Author: Walter Humes
Scottish education: genuine partnership or pre-election fix?
“The Scottish educational establishment, over many decades, has been successful in resisting attempts to disturb its culture of complacency. Sadly, it may take a further decline in public confidence and trust before real change – as distinct from yet another exercise in public relations – can take place.”
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Lost opportunities in Scottish education 2: lack of leadership
“Bringing forward new proposals to improve literacy and numeracy, in response to the PISA results, may produce some improvement, but there are deeper, systemic problems that require to be addressed. Are politicians, administrators and senior professionals capable of demonstrating the boldness that is required?” asks Walter Humes in his latest broadside against a mutually self-supporting…
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Prophets without honour in their own land
“Scots have a self-image of being frank and forthright. Within the professions at least, this is rarely justified. Agreement with official policy rather than plain speaking is the dominant form of discourse at the upper levels of Scottish education. Similar tendencies can be seen in law and medicine….”
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Education: no more business as usual
“Change can be difficult and uncomfortable, but there is unlikely to be a better time to begin to dismantle some of the barriers which have impeded genuine growth. Scottish education needs to escape from the ‘iron cage’ of its own bureaucracy. This will require vision, honesty and courage, qualities that, sadly, have not been in…
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Two attainment gaps in Scottish education
On the SQA crisis: ‘At the heart of Scotland’s educational malaise is a serious deficit in the quality of thinking at the top. Such a climate is a recipe for the apotheosis of mediocrity. Too many of those in senior positions are ineffective time-servers, compliant functionaries or political opportunists.’
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