Standard Grades To Be Scrapped

Reluctant Hero · Standard Grades To Be Scrapped

In a reform of the curriculum, Standard Grades are to be scrapped.

Can't say I'm bothered one way or the other. O-Grades cames and went as did by the looks of it Standard Grades. Whatever replaces them will just be another barometer for employers to use.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politi...to_be_axed_by_Scots_ministers.php

Scott2006

The problem with qualifications in High School education is that a basic qualification in Reading, Writing & Arithmetic which should be treated as one subject that EVERY student should have to gain before moving on to a course of education which interested them.

Without a basic grounding, perhaps established at S3 level, all other subjects are being constructed on a level of knowledge akin to shifting sands. Employers don't really want a piece of paper to prove that what went in one ear went out the other a short while later.

The government has a responsibility to society and to pupils and their families to eradicate illiteracy and innumeracy. A qualification should be a true indicator of what comprehension the young person has of the subject - in relation to what society has to gain from the raising of a standard of competency in essential knowledge that every person should demand from a universal education system in this society.

Some parts of secondary education fail as they leave the teacher following a curriculum that sees the curriculum as an end in itself.

The schools that get higher number of pupils with a greater number of better grades are in essence teaching their subjects as preparation along various stages to getting an understanding that is close to a first year at university in terms of intellectual rigour.

Some young people I come across have very limited horizons in certain parts of our cities and towns, and would prefer to drop some subjects and be treated as young adults, with a degree of respect, and to follow courses in City & Guilds level of real life, vocational qualifications, and not sociologically stratified misunderstood Standard Grades that stream ability groups and avoid challenging all but the top group.

School is not a glorified child minding service to keep the seemingly less able but definitely greater socio-economically challenged off the streets between 9am and 3 or 3.30pm until the age of 16 or possibly 18 in the relatively near future.