Labours New Dodgy Dossier

[phart]

This is one of the reasons it's hard to take the judicial system seriously.

[neilser]

Case thrown out because of a badger-up by the PF. Unbelievable.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13526736.MP_charged_with_attacking_woman_at_polling_station_on_day_of_indyref_walks_free_after_blunder/

OAP's Vile Nat Smear Hell

[Parklife]

OAP's Vile Nat Smear Hell

Think I read that in the Scotsman

[Glasgowmancity]

Feck sake, it's someone getting lifted for assault in Shettleston - that's not news, it's an hourly occurrence.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Glasgowmancity

[Flora MaDonald]

Don't know how to put a tweet on here, but here is Dugdale's from earlier today:

"Chuffed for every young person in Scotland who passed their exams - only sorry the Scottish Government made it harder for you".

Phûqqing hell, can she not even congratulate folk on passing, without SNP Bad snidey remark? Nae wonder people are deserting them in droves.

[Scunnered]

Don't know how to put a tweet on here, but here is Dugdale's from earlier today:

"Chuffed for every young person in Scotland who passed their exams - only sorry the Scottish Government made it harder for you".

Phûqqing hell, can she not even congratulate folk on passing, without SNP Bad snidey remark? Nae wonder people are deserting them in droves.

Is it not the point that exams should be hard?

[Flora MaDonald]

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/holyrood/656974/exam-results-spark-tweetlikekez-trend/

[Orraloon]

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/holyrood/656974/exam-results-spark-tweetlikekez-trend/

[mariokempes56]

Don't know how to put a tweet on here, but here is Dugdale's from earlier today:

"Chuffed for every young person in Scotland who passed their exams - only sorry the Scottish Government made it harder for you".

Phûqqing hell, can she not even congratulate folk on passing, without SNP Bad snidey remark? Nae wonder people are deserting them in droves.

How the fek did/could the Govt (any one) make it harder ? Do they set the papers now?

She really comes across as an imbecile. Leader material indeed.

[Scunnered]

How the fek did/could the Govt (any one) make it harder ? Do they set the papers now?

She really comes across as an imbecile. Leader material indeed.

I assume it's referring to the SNP's record on education rather than the exams herself... Also a silly thing to say as I believe it's still Labours half arsed education plans that the SNP have continued implementing.

[phart]

the difficulty of the exams in the 70's compared to today is a joke. there is no comparison, even higher physics is a joke compared to O-grade physics. Plus whoever implemented the cirriculum of excellence or whatever it's fecking called wasn't very good.

[Scunnered]

Plus whoever implemented the cirriculum of excellence or whatever it's fecking called wasn't very good.

Yeah that's the one. Couldn't remember the name of it. From memory it was the Labour government who thought the daft thing up and it was then implemented by the SNP minority government.

[aaid]

I assume it's referring to the SNP's record on education rather than the exams herself... Also a silly thing to say as I believe it's still Labours half arsed education plans that the SNP have continued implementing.

Nope, if you look at her timeline and her justifications, she was referring to the Higher maths exam being too hard.

Surprised no-one's had the wit to ask Mhairi Black her opinion.

[phart]

Is the actual exam online i'd lit to sit it and see what the fuss is about? I'm away to try and find out myself via google but just asking here as well.

Seems this was the main complaint

"The fact that the questions were so wordy, required you to read over them a number of times to just understand what the question meant, never mind what formula to use or how to work it out."

so whoever set the maths exam was shit at English.

Edited August 4, 2015 by phart

[AlfieMoon]

the difficulty of the exams in the 70's compared to today is a joke. there is no comparison, even higher physics is a joke compared to O-grade physics. Plus whoever implemented the cirriculum of excellence or whatever it's fecking called wasn't very good.

Yeah that's the one. Couldn't remember the name of it. From memory it was the Labour government who thought the daft thing up and it was then implemented by the SNP minority government.

Interesting to know which specific criticisms you have of it?

One of the main people who devised/implemented much of it was subsequently poached to Cambridge as far I'm aware and it seems to have backing and integration in terms other key programmes such as the Wood Commission and other programmes for better shaping education and building society of tomorrow.

I'm not hugely well informed but happy to hear what is so crap about it?

[phart]

Seen one question, jesus it's multiple choice for gods sake. Sure you need the working , but if you know the equation you can just back input the figures 4 times till the equation makes sense.

[phart]

Interesting to know which specific criticisms you have of it?

One of the main people who devised/implemented much of it was subsequently poached to Cambridge as far I'm aware and it seems to have backing and integration in terms other key programmes such as the Wood Commission and other programmes for better shaping education and building society of tomorrow.

I'm not hugely well informed but happy to hear what is so crap about it?

Nice of them to feck off to another project while this one is still ongoing. I'm sure one of the "main people" thought it would work in theory but reality doesn't always conform to theory especially in the soft sciences.

Well if we start with teacher complaints.

Teachers wanted another year to prepare for it. I'll just lift the results of a teachers poll verbatim from the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association conducted in 2010.

79% of teachers who responded disagreed that the outcomes and experiences set out in the new Curriculum were adequate.

88% said that they required additional resources to implement CfE.

90% said that the main problem lay in the lack of assessment materials.

79% said they had not been adequately consulted on timetabling and curriculum models.

67% said that their school's curriculum model either enjoyed nil support from them or only a small amount of support.

And 73% agreed that communications from local authorities, LTS (learning and teaching, Scotland), SQA etc have been neither effective nor supportive.

Another poll much more recent found that

Over 90%of respondents feel that the senior phase ( years 4 – 6 )implementation of CFE has increased their workload over the past year.

Almost 80% feel that their workload increase has been "very high " or "high"

Well over 90% of respondents believe that additional resources will be required to implement the senior phase of CfE in their school.

More than 85% of respondents believe that more additional in-service training will be required to support CfE senior phase implementation.

Only 3% of respondents are "fully confident " that their department will be able to deliver the new qualifications from next year, and less than 5% are "very confident ".

By contrast , over 70% of respondents are "barely confident " or "not confident at all of their department's readiness to deliver the new qualifications on the current timescale.

Teachers also displayed very high levels of dissatisfaction regarding the level of information / support provided to support their work in developing CfE senior phase.

Over 80% of respondents rated Scottish Government support as "unsatisfactory "

In the process of looking up the polls i found a large but complete criticism of it, which is much better than me typing out for hours so i'm just going to reproduce it here: http://www.thepointhowever.org/index.php/issues/93-curriculum-for-excellence-a-critique

From a parents side:

they don't understand it either so hard to help puplies make a choice.

It gives a lot of extra work to teachers without giving them anymore time or resources as well.

Edited August 4, 2015 by phart

[phart]

the last part of the page since i know lots of folk wont get that far.

As Chris Holligan, a senior lecturer in Education at the University of the West of Scotland said in article for The Herald in June 2010-08-04

"People might begin to realise that the four capacities have the imprint of aims and values that serve the interests of the business sector rather than any broader conception of the public good. The focus has been on the 'experiences' and 'outcomes' which teachers are expected to 'deliver', rather than on the underlying rationale of the whole exercise. That the capacities are merely sketched and not incorporated into a deeper and more culturally nuanced vision of the good society is a cause for concern, especially in a pluralist democracy...

It appropriates American trends by favouring a highly adaptable but compliant labour force who will follow orders rather than reflect on the reasons behind them. It facilitates the growth of employees rather than citizens – employees who will lack the mental tools to evaluate critically the competitive culture into which they will be incorporated."

[AlfieMoon]

Nice of them to feck off to another project while this one is still ongoing. I'm sure one of the "main people" thought it would work in theory but reality doesn't always conform to theory especially in the soft sciences.

Well if we start with teacher complaints.

Teachers wanted another year to prepare for it. I'll just lift the results of a teachers poll verbatim from the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association conducted in 2010.

79% of teachers who responded disagreed that the outcomes and experiences set out in the new Curriculum were adequate.

88% said that they required additional resources to implement CfE.

90% said that the main problem lay in the lack of assessment materials.

79% said they had not been adequately consulted on timetabling and curriculum models.

67% said that their school's curriculum model either enjoyed nil support from them or only a small amount of support.

And 73% agreed that communications from local authorities, LTS (learning and teaching, Scotland), SQA etc have been neither effective nor supportive.

Another poll much more recent found that

Over 90%of respondents feel that the senior phase ( years 4 – 6 )implementation of CFE has increased their workload over the past year.

Almost 80% feel that their workload increase has been "very high " or "high"

Well over 90% of respondents believe that additional resources will be required to implement the senior phase of CfE in their school.

More than 85% of respondents believe that more additional in-service training will be required to support CfE senior phase implementation.

Only 3% of respondents are "fully confident " that their department will be able to deliver the new qualifications from next year, and less than 5% are "very confident ".

By contrast , over 70% of respondents are "barely confident " or "not confident at all of their department's readiness to deliver the new qualifications on the current timescale.

Teachers also displayed very high levels of dissatisfaction regarding the level of information / support provided to support their work in developing CfE senior phase.

Over 80% of respondents rated Scottish Government support as "unsatisfactory "

In the process of looking up the polls i found a large but complete criticism of it, which is much better than me typing out for hours so i'm just going to reproduce it here: http://www.thepointhowever.org/index.php/issues/93-curriculum-for-excellence-a-critique

From a parents side:

they don't understand it either so hard to help puplies make a choice.

It gives a lot of extra work to teachers without giving them anymore time or resources as well.

Fair enough.

I'm not a teacher, nor in education, but I know that people in general don't like more work and people don't like change. People will also complain about employers and will especially complain about governments.

In terms of preparation time - I believe this started in 2004. There should have been adequate time. Where the blame lies for dissatisfaction - I'm not sure.

Both Labour and SNP had confidence that this was the right direction. The strategy design and implementation process involved those from education, government, higher education, industry, parents, and wider society so wasn't exclusive government top-down.

The CfE asks teachers to be more dynamic and adapt their teaching. They're being asked to raise their game. This may or may not be fair on top of a heavy workload and challenging them to adapt their teaching in a way that they didn't train but I think the intention is right.

As for parents - I think they like a moan as much as the next person as well - understandably when their children are involved. There's plenty resource to explain what it is - they only need to google and relate it to the SCQF Framework.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/thecurriculum/

Edited August 4, 2015 by AlfieMoon

[phart]

We have to deal with reality though not how reality "should" be. The vast majority of teachers and schools were not ready regardless of when it started, one council took unilateral action and just decided not to implement it as they weren't ready.

As i say when dealing with soft sciences the theory and the practice don't mix like they do in the hard sciences.

[giblet]

Teachers don't deal in the real world. They were given a target date and failed to do the preparatory work on time. In the lead up to implementation all you got from them at parents evening was moans and complaints about th uncertainty of the nationals.

If they were employees in private sector, there jobs would have been on the line for some of the comments I heard.

It was all about how much extra work they were having to put in and for me, a concerted effort to get th parents wound up to protest on their behalf.

As an aside, at a parent council meeting, the ex head teacher of Balerno High was extolling the virtues of his new feedback process to staff. I asked him what would happen in respect of continued negative feedback to any particular teacher and he replied that they were a collegiate and any problem would be worked out.

Does anyone know the stats for how many teachers are sacked in a year for continued poor performance?

[iainmac1]

I assume it's referring to the SNP's record on education rather than the exams herself... Also a silly thing to say as I believe it's still Labours half arsed education plans that the SNP have continued implementing.

Nothing wrong with the curriculum for excellence. It's been beneficial on the most part.

[Scunnered]

Nothing wrong with the curriculum for excellence. It's been beneficial on the most part.

Nothing? Nothing at all? For receiving such wide spread criticism I find that hard to believe. You also contradicted yourself in your second sentence.

[iainmac1]

Nothing? Nothing at all? For receiving such wide spread criticism I find that hard to believe. You also contradicted yourself in your second sentence.

You have called them half arsed without really knowing anything about it. That's a bit narrow minded no?

Most of the critisisms I have found have come from the fact there was change and some teachers don't like to embrace change or do things differently. Since its settled down I think it's been good and more teachers have come around to it. Not the disaster that it is portrayed to be. Far from it.

Edited August 5, 2015 by iainmac1

[Scunnered]

You have called them half arsed without really knowing anything about it. That's a bit narrow minded no?

Most of the critisisms I have found have come from the fact there was change and some teachers don't like to embrace change or do things differently. Since its settled down I think it's been good and more teachers have come around to it. Not the disaster that it is portrayed to be. Far from it.

Narrow minded? I don't think so. With school age daughters I'm perhaps guilty of being a little parent minded

From council meetings to concerns from my girls teachers themselves as well as the school administration, locally the feedback has not been good. Granted confidence in education is at an all time low in my area due to the ongoing "super campus" fiasco. As far as nationally goes admittedly my exposure is limited to surveys like the ones that comrade Phart has shared, feedback from friends outwith the area and media.