And, woe, we did revel in the Pisa disaster. We were rubbish and getting worse. Curriculum for Excellence was a failure. We were happy to see bandied about in the media phrases such as “all-time low” and “plunged” - referring to the rankings produced by the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
And, of course, it is bad. To think that fewer of Scotland’s children are reaching competent levels of literacy is unacceptable. However, the hyperbole of such language doesn’t help. Political outrage merely gets in the way; politicians merely get in the way. Pisa tells a story but a very narrow one, and one that ignores the great things happening in all our schools.
As an English teacher, it is my life’s work to improve the literacy of every child who walks though my door. When I read about drops in standards, whatever that may mean, it hurts. Literacy is a human right. The ability to read and write should be a minimum expectation of every child who goes to school. And most do achieve this. The misleading media focus on Pisa is an unfair reflection of what is happening in our schools and deflects attention from the majority who are achieving so much.
The misleading media focus on Pisa is an unfair reflection of what is happening in our schools
Being fortunate enough to visit schools on an annual basis, I find that the wonderful things occurring never fail to amaze me. In my own school, in the last weeks before Christmas, I watched children involved in debating to a very high standard, a jazz band, a ceilidh band, a concert band, a choir. I’ve also read about their successes in football, rugby, netball. They are building rockets in the engineering club, coding, producing incredible art, winning creative writing competitions with poetry which would make you cry. They are, for the most part, polite and eloquent and funny and interesting and challenging.
Those things are happening in schools all over the country. However, that’s not in the news. Instead, our children read and hear stories about how they are struggling with literacy and numeracy and science. Yes, they read those, too.
Of course, we could turn this into a political debate on the merits of CfE; we could point fingers and apportion blame. If there are barriers to literacy and numeracy inadvertently created by the curriculum, then they need to be overcome. If things need to change, then they need to be changed. I’ll be at the front of the queue with the wrecking ball.
But I won’t stand by and let the great work that’s happening in schools be ignored. I’m no apologist for CfE - not any more. I was in the past, but now I see the flaws. So let’s speak up for the successes and tackle the failures; let’s collaborate and share the good things and challenge and dismiss the rubbish. We owe it to ourselves; we owe to our children.
Kenny Pieper is an English teacher in Scotland
