Exams performance not most encouraging news
Published 6 Jan 2011 09:30
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THE report about the performance of North Ayrshire Council area in school league tables makes very depressing reading.
According to the website quoted in your article, Scottish Schools Online, only one of the council's nine secondary schools exceeded the national average for the percentage of pupils gaining five or more Highers by the end of S5.
A second school equalled the national average at this level, but the remaining seven schools were below the national average.
This is not the most encouraging news, especially for parents of children approaching secondary school age.
Blaming deprivation for NAC's lowly position in the league tables is too easy an answer.
We used to have an education system that enabled pupils to attend state schools that could match the standards achieved by the private sector. These results suggest that for most state pupils this is no longer the case.
Changes to our education system introduced since the late 1960s have removed this opportunity and appear to have made it harder for able pupils from deprived areas to reach their full potential.
I find it difficult to be reassured by the by the council's statement that it will continue to "robustly engage" with pupils and parents to "raise attainment levels"?
How will the recently-reported plan to close libraries help it to achieve this aim?
John Massey
43 Lomond Crescent,
Beith,
Ayrshire
This letter appeared in Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald 05 Jan 11
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