Spectaculaire daling PISA-scores Schotland sinds 2000 mede als gevolg van invoering skills-centred” curriculum

Momenteel: PISA-scpres Schotse 15-jarigen ver onder OESO-gemiddelde van 500 punten

Scotland has dropped from 11th to 23rd in reading, 11th to 24th in maths, 10th to 19th in science. That’s a terrible performance!

Ook zgn. skills-centred” curriculum for Excellence valt/viel blijkbaar tegen
.Scotland’s hubristically named Curriculum for Excellence has been such a flop: its futuristic “skills-centred” phantasmagoria (soon to be rolled out in Wales) is totally at odds with what we teachers know about how children actually learn.

Daniel Willingham sets out the reasons for this in the most important book that wasn’t on your teacher-training course: Why Don’t Students Like School. In it, Willingham makes clear that it’s subject-specific knowledge that begets skills. Ask a chemist to think critically about the causes of combustion and they’ll do so with gusto. Ask them to think critically about the causes of the Franco-Prussian War and their critical-thinking faculties may quickly depart.
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Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor
19 May 2017 • 7:52pm
Theresa May has attacked the SNP’s education record as a “national scandal”, saying she was concerned about the impact on Scottish children as Prime Minister of the entire UK.

Mrs May said the Scottish education system was once “the envy of the civilised world” but standards had declined sharply thanks to the Nationalists’ “tunnel-vision obsession with independence.”
Although she admitted that education was devolved to Scotland, she said she still cared “very deeply about the life chances of Scottish children.”

She spoke out as Ruth Davidson accused the SNP of failing a “generation” and set out plans in the Scottish Tory manifesto to “reset” the controversial Curriculum for Excellence.

Ms Davidson said there must be a renewed focus on learning “core knowledge and facts” rather than the present criteria, which revolve around “outcomes and experiences.”

The manifesto also promised to end the “comprehensive one-size-fits-all model” of schooling in Scotland, with more diversity and choice for parents and greater autonomy for headteachers. However, it omitted Mrs May’s pledge to roll out a new wave of grammar schools in England.

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Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor
4 March 2017 • 6:00am

Ruth Davidson will today call Nicola Sturgeon’s education record a “mark of shame” and announce a 'back to basics' review of the school curriculum to give it a traditional emphasis on “knowledge and facts”.

The Scottish Tory leader will use her keynote conference speech to state that it is an “absolute disgrace” that a series of studies have found standards in reading, maths and science have tumbled during the decade of SNP rule.
Promising that her party will conduct a “root-and-branch review” of the Curriculum for Excellence, she is expected to argue that it has left parents and teachers “utterly confused” and concluded that “it is time to get rid of the waffle”.

The curriculum places greater emphasis on teaching ‘life skills’ rather than learning facts by rote but Ms Davidson will claim that this approach has led to a “collapse in standards.”
Her outspoken attack on Ms Sturgeon’s record came after Theresa May used her keynote address to the Glasgow conference to argue that “the SNP’s neglect and mismanagement of Scottish education has been a scandal.”
The Prime Minister said fewer youngsters from the poorest backgrounds are getting into university in Scotland than in the rest of the UK and highlighted the cap on places, necessary so the SNP’s free tuition pledge is affordable.

Theresa May made an outspoken attack on the SNP's education record during her speech to the Scottish Tory conference Credit: Getty
Ms Sturgeon has said she wants to be judged on her success in closing the wide gulf in attainment between the wealthiest and poorest pupils but an international study published in December found the Scottish education system had recorded its worst ever performance.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for 2015 found Scotland has tumbled down league tables for maths, reading and science and no longer performs above the international average in any subject area. It has also fallen behind England.
Ms Davidson will also highlight a study by think tank the Sutton Trust, which found last month that there was no area where the brightest Scottish 15-year-olds “really excel.”

The Scottish Tory leader will say: “What an absolute disgrace. What a mark of shame. So much for your social justice, Nicola.” She will argue that a school system hampered by “SNP incompetence”, and not teachers, are to blame.
Announcing her plan for a curriculum review, she is expected to say she does not want to scrap it altogether as teachers do not want “yet another top-down reform.”

But she will add: “We do have to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy which has led to this collapse in standards, which thinks of facts and knowledge as of secondary importance, which puts the latest fashionable theory before the basic need for a teacher to teach and which has left a generation of teachers, parents and pupils utterly confused about what is going on, or what Curriculum for Excellence even is.”
Pledging that her review group will report back with practical recommendations, Ms Davidson will say: “It is time to get rid of the waffle, and the theories that have failed – and restore Scotland’s reputation as providing the best education in the world.”

It emerged this week that the SNP’s flagship legislation giving headteachers more autonomy has been delayed until after the local government elections in May.