Education Sec Mike Russell: “I made mistakes in new exams this year...but I won't say sorry”, the George Laird view is this, ‘with this dick in charge kids don't have a future’, will unpopular Nicola Sturgeon have a Cabinet reshuffle, I would have sacked Russell’s arse without a second thought!

Dear All

Time for a quote:

“I believe it is fundamentally better for us all, if decisions about Scotland's future are taken by the people who care most about Scotland, that is, by the people of Scotland.

Being independent means Scotland's future will be in Scotland's hands”.

This is what is called setting the stage.

The Scottish National Party made a big deal about Scotland's future in Scotland's hands, but the reality is that Scotland’s future would be in the hands of the Nationalists if they had won.

As you can see in health, justice and education, the big three briefs, the SNP has done rather badly.

In education, we have Mike Russell, as Education Secretary, a man who was given a justifiably given a vote of no confidence. Although the SNP claim to be listening to experts, the experts of education weren’t to be listened to it seems. Mike Russell, Salmond’s pal wasn’t to be sacked by Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond.

A mistake, but then, the SNP is run as a one man band.

Russell has now admitted that mistakes were made in introducing new exams in schools, the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) rolled out too early and because of indy no one chasing this up in the form of Russell to fix it.

Scotland had no effective government since May 2011 and it shows.

Russell has refused to apologise to teachers, parents and pupils for the debacle because, he is Salmond’s pal, just like the offensive Joan McAlpine, protected by the warm glow of Salmond when they should have had their arse flamed and removed.

In trying to be meaningful, Russell said the process of implementing new qualifications under the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) had been “difficult”.

And then he spins the new system “is succeeding and will succeed”, given his track record of failure how much stock can be put in his observations.

Russell said:

“Everybody who is involved in this process has made mistakes. Everybody can think of things they would want to do differently. This can be difficult and has been difficult, it has not been perfect, no work of human hand is perfect. But I think that there has been genuine good work undertaken across the board, by this committee right through to schools, to individuals, and that has produced results and that’s what we intend to go on doing.”

In other words, Russell wants to blame others for his failure of leadership, it was nothing to do with him being in charge, others are responsible but he accepts responsibility, presumably on the way to the ATM to draw out his ministerial salary.

As the calls grow to apologise to teachers, parents and pupils who had struggled with the changes, Mike Russell is deaf to them.

Labour MSP Neil Bibby said:

“You have accepted there have been mistakes made in the course of this. You have said that there has been over-assessment. As the man who is ultimately responsible, would you like to apologise to the teachers, parents and pupils for what has gone on?”

Russell responded:

“No, what I’d like to do is to pay tribute to everybody who has worked so hard. Everybody has worked hard on this and it has been tough for a lot of different people. But in those circumstances we have done something that is worthwhile and is producing results for the young people of Scotland. CfE is a good thing which many, many people have worked together to make a success and I’m grateful to every single one of them.”

Which is why so many teachers don’t understand it and apparently that isn’t a problem!

He added:

“We have in process a culture change that is and has been difficult for some teachers, but the whole programme is designed to support that change and to make it happen.”

Well that is meaningless tripe.

And in not recognize problems, Russell added the extra workload faced by teachers was “absolutely not integral” to the new exam system.

Really!

One of the changes that is needed but probably won’t happen is that Mike Russell needs to be shown the door, now that Salmond is going, can unpopular Nicola Sturgeon carry the dead weight, but in a party of uneducated non entities who can be promoted?

Anyone stupid enough to believe the meaningless pap:

“I believe it is fundamentally better for us all, if decisions about Scotland's future are taken by the people who care most about Scotland, that is, by the people of Scotland. Being independent means Scotland's future will be in Scotland's hands”.

With this dick in charge kids don't have a future!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University