Heads emphasise importance of parental interest

- Parental interest in education is linked to attainment, said Dr TR Bone, Jordanhill College’s principal education lecturer. Research showed children with IQs of just over 100 going onto higher education because of a home climate of success. The child with an IQ of 130, whose parents had no experience of non-compulsory schooling, was content to become a shop assistant.

Television cannot replace teachers

- Closed-circuit television might threaten use of textbooks, but never the importance of teachers, said James Carmichael, rector of Queen Anne High, Dunfermline. Television could be a great stimulus to reading, as library issues of The Forsyte Saga testified. Large comprehensives and expanding resources would necessitate professional librarians, he told the Library Association’s youth libraries group.

Steep rise in education costs

- There was a steep rise in education costs in 1970-71, up 8 per cent in cities (to pound;197 16s 9d per pupil) and 7 per cent in counties (pound;174 4s 6d). The number of pupils in cities is increasing as teacher numbers fall. Glasgow had 1,613 more pupils, and 102 fewer teachers; Aberdeen had almost 800 more pupils, but 10 fewer teachers. The highest spend per pupil was in Sutherland (pound;326 3s 6d), the lowest in Kirkcudbright (pound;152 8s 1d).

Three-year course for BSc honours?

- Talks are taking place between universities and Scottish Education Department officials over the possible introduction of three-year science degrees. Some consider four-year courses an unnecessary luxury, draining grants, space and staffing. One way of cutting back to three years would be to tighten entry standards. Part of the rationale for four-year courses has been the variable standard of new students.

`An oppressed class’, says union leader

- Teachers have been an oppressed class since the end of the Second World War, said Robert McClement, Scottish Schoolmasters’ Association general secretary. Negotiating machinery to determine teachers’ salaries has been introduced recently, but is weighted against teachers. Young people are increasingly angry and militant over injustices and inequalities in this country. The day has passed when it could be accepted that education was for the rich and powerful, sometimes offered as a reward to talented recruits from the lower orders.