Today we discover the intricacies of Scottish education system. The fast paced life of Scottish people as compared to their pre historic standards of education. The murk reality of classism in the Scottish Society.

Scotland the land of melodious bagpipers, kilt and a crumbling school system. Shocked? Well, most of us are. Scotland that was home to some professional preschool and secondary teacher has seen a steep decline in quality of standard operating procedures almost imposed by the government of Scotland.

Before delving into the cons and atrocities of Scottish school system which seems to be the tea at the moment we need to do some fact checking. Here we go:

So, basically the land of bagpipers had seen better days. No kidding, they had actually been one of the best education systems in the world – but guess what, glory doesn’t last long. The Scottish education system is divided in to five stages. Don’t get all excited it ain’t that simple buddy – or may be it is because that has been the root of problem, or as claimed by many.

Levels Of Education:

Level 1 – it is for students of age 4 to 8
Level 2- it is for students of age 8 to 11
Level 3 – it is for students of age 11 to 14
Level 4 – It is for students of age 14 to 15
Level 5 – It is for students of age 15 to 16
Education till level 5 is compulsory, and after that students who wish to continue being ‘educated’ and ‘woke’ can opt for higher studies. Education is obviously free for students up till level 5.

History Lecture

Before we can truly roast the Scottish government for what it has done to the Scottish once model education system we need a bit more insight on the laws and constituents that led to this failure.
Like England, the education department is under the control of Scottish government, no surprise there, it’s a part of the monarchy. The curriculum taught in Scotland is called the Curriculum For Excellence or CFE. The government does not hand out the syllabi for subjects that need to be taught, instead it only provides guidelines about what needs to be done.

Teachers have the autonomy to choose their line of teaching, the method of communicating subject matter and basically fulfill the checklist handed over by government – the covenant of modern day teaching if I should say.

There are 3 main core subjects that are to be taught at school

1. Health and Well being
2. Literacy
3. Numeracy

Just fancy name calling science, literature and math – that’s what usually people do when they can’t really deliver quality they focus on peripheral matters like fancy names.
By the order of government teachers are required to make use of their godly teacher skills and do the following in their respective classrooms:

1. Assign projects to student that increase their knowledge in the subject they have chosen (acceptable)
2. Talk about local culture by making students discuss people in their area (not a really clear instruction coming from a government level official)
3. Make students talk about their interests, or subjects that interest them. (Very much acceptable, but isn’t that too much talking?)

To all teachers reading this, yes we know you sympathize with your community members at this point in time, but by the end you will truly understand the pain of Scottish teachers.

Who Is behind this?

Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills is responsible for provision of education in the country; this cabinet is assisted by 3 junior minister as well – if you thought a whole cabinet was not enough to ruin the country is enough. No wonder so many Scottish students are flocking up to assignment writing UK for help with their college applications.

It doesn’t come as a surprise when you search the pages of internet for Scottish education you are bound to see the Scottish government curated page as the first one. It says they working towards developing:

1. Confident Individuals
2. Successful Learners
3. Effective Contributors
4. Responsible Citizens (of course)

The Loopholes of All Loopholes of Scottish Education System

Scottish government is known to have made the whole process of acquiring education very generic. Now students who are trying to acquire education are jacks of all and vixen of none if I am brutally honest. CFE or the Curriculum for Excellence is very vague for anyone who is from outside Scotland because how does a kid decide what he wants to study when he is barely introduced to it in the first place – makes me doubt if the cabinet for education was even aware of the consequences their fancy boho decisions.

Debasing Importance of Subjects That Are Actually Important

It has been observed in different schools that more and more students are opting for subjects that are easier. Since the introduction of this amendment or bill or whatever name you would like to call it the number of students taking French and German has halved.

What is a Successful contributor? Wait. What did you say, please say that again?

Teachers associated with education background are having trouble with defining what they are responsible for curating. You don’t have an idea of what I am talking about, I clearly understand that. So here is an example for you:
Teachers have the responsibility of making their students “versatile and well-read” in every way possible, but what good is a teacher going to be if she is unable to define what a ‘versatile and well read’ student should be like?

That is precisely the case with Scotland right now. It is in a state of jeopardy where students don’t know what they are being taught and teachers don’t know what they are teaching – it’s a case of mutual unknowingness.

Learning Shakespeare through Bar Charts!

Interdisciplinary learning has gone so far and beyond the control of old school teaching methods that teachers have no put in the effort of explaining students basic things by redundantly using tactics that have no match with the other, like you could expect a line graph of all the times Beatrice was rude to Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing Scene 4 – God have mercy on these students and teachers.

Judging Performance through Classwork – The Irony

I kind of, sort of feel jealous at this point because Scottish students don’t have just one chance to give tests?! I mean isn’t that the best thing to happen to you at the age of 6? Actually, no. It is almost like getting economics assignments help from someone because obviously you couldn’t do it on your own and then just pleading them to complete it for you in all and turn it in using your name – foul play.

Scotland hopes and makes its teachers to score pupil on the basis of their class work. Most teachers now refer to schools as ‘pass factory’ because students are given unlimited attempts on core assessments. This phenomenon of foul play has gone so far and beyond correction because now students are hiring tutors to write their coursework – imagine passing your school without ever having a single worry in the world. Beautiful feeling.

Gerrymandering – The End of Quality Education

If only it was a name that stayed in political novels I would have been one happy person but unfortunately it is almost like another episode of Game of Thrones where the battle for throne goes on. Recent years have been all about creating a divide between the class systems – almost strongly promoting classism through education.

Be it a school or a university the bias system of producing results in only posh areas the league tables showed a bleak picture of the state of affairs in Scotland. The divide created between students belonging to middle class is so strong that now parents are giving away their money only to get a house in one of those posh areas – talk about bad dealing.

Students carrying straight As in their high school are denied their rightful admission to leading medical and dental universities because ‘they are too middle class’ by their standards. Real estate has seen a sudden surge in prices for areas where there are posh schools, so much so that the cost of the house is calculated depending on the total expenses of sending a family’s total number of children to school.

It’s a Rich Man’s World.

To tell you the truth, the future of Scotland is like 10 years old. The amount of politics that has been going around over education is scary. The power of holding a whole institution hostage to Stone Age standards of class system is horrifying if anything. I can’t imagine how a student with the love of learning falls victim to such discrimination.

The divide that lets well off and fortunate students to have private education and then get a job or internship thanks to their daddy’s links in the government is anything but fair. Most people who acquire posts of army, politics and judiciary are known to belong to private education background which leaves underprivileged students at the hands of community schools that are facing a downfall because of government policies. It’s a vicious cycle that is making world a hard place for middle class people to survive in.

AUTHOR BIO

Adrian Miller has got his MSc Business and Management from the University of Nottingham, he is a passionate writer who loves contributing to Academic Consultants as writer.