Science blow for Scots in 2008

By Seonag Mackinnon
BBC Scotland education correspondent

It is hoped a new curriculum will improve science results

As church bells mark the end of 2008, alarm bells are ringing in the offices of Scottish government.

A landmark international survey - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study - indicates Scottish schools are left trailing by much of the world.

The nation which gave the world breakthroughs such as penicillin, radar and television, now has school results eclipsed by those in Latvia, England and Kazakhstan.

The Scottish National Party government points out the decline in results happened during previous political administrations. And it says a new curriculum will tackle the problem.

But leading Scottish scientists have said the proposed reforms are sketchy and ill thought-out.

In 2009 ministers will present revised proposals which they hope will command confidence.

Teacher struck off

Competence was the issue in December when a Perthshire teacher became the first in Scotland to be struck off for this reason.

Until now, staff here only faced this fate if they had inappropriate relations with pupils or criminal convictions.

If dismissed for incompetence by one Scottish council there was nothing to stop them teaching children in a neighbouring area.

Susan Barnard, who trained in New Zealand, pleaded guilty - but at the 11th hour - too late to avoid a largely public hearing and the inevitable media storm surrounding this historic first case.

Teacher vacancies

It was the fate of newly qualified teachers which dominated headlines for much of the year. Less than 40% have full-time permanent jobs.

Head teachers' leaders maintained the thousands who took on student debts and, in some cases, gave up secure jobs in other professions, had been betrayed.

The Scottish government said it had given local councils enough money to cut class sizes and create teacher posts. Several councils denied this.

Some went further and said openly they did not feel the government policy of no more than 18 pupils in the first three years of primary school could be a priority in their spending plans.

The policy is massively popular with both parents and teachers - but also massively expensive.

The plan to offer free lunches to all five to seven-year-olds has caused dissent. Some see it as an essential radical measure to make an impact on the notoriously bad diet north of the border.

Others say children from low income families already receive a free meal and the change will merely benefit the children of lawyers and bankers.

'Curriculum for excellence'

Expect much talk in the new year of the new curriculum for nurseries, primaries and secondaries.

The "curriculum for excellence" is billed as the biggest shake-up in Scottish education for a generation.

The aim is to "declutter", fuse and modernise what teachers teach.

Staff are broadly supportive of the principles but there is now widespread concern that in practice the new curriculum may be too vague.

And staff are uneasy over linked radical reform to exams and qualifications.

Head teachers maintain there is a real chance of creating a complex sketchy system which could result in the kind of chaos that hit the Scottish Qualifications Authority in 2000.

After an avalanche of correspondence, the government has agreed to delay launch by a year to 2010 so that teachers have more time to prepare for the changes.

New buildings

Preparing new ways to fund school buildings has been an occupation in government buildings: a third of Scots youngsters are taught in schools which are in poor condition.

Ministers unhappy with the public private partnership and private finance initiative schemes which they say were inefficient and expensive, set out to find an alternative.

Staff, pupils and education directors focused on leaking roofs, rotten window sills and dingy classrooms, must be praying it is launched in 2009.