Thursday, March 26, 2015

Scotland’s unpopular First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sees her ‘gender balance’ experiment crash on the rocks as Angela Constance goofs on new education bill, branded ‘futile’ and ‘irrelevant’ by education expert, Sturgeon’s inept SNP Government outed yet again!















Dear All

Having had several donkeys occupying the role as SNP Education Sec, the last under the Alex Salmond regime being Mike Russell, who was woefully inept, you might have expected that unpopular Nicola Sturgeon would try and raise the SNP game.

What does she do, she appoints another donkey in the shape of Angela Constance.

Anyway, the SNP has come up with an new Education Bill, now you might think that educational experts would welcome new measures to help students to achieve and prosper.

But no!

Professor Lindsay Paterson says the Scottish Government’s Education Bill “won’t achieve much” and is "irrelevant" to raising standards.

In previous blog posts, you will have caught I said that the SNP don’t do law well, and that there is a genuine lack of talent in the SNP.

Both these observations have borne out to be true.

So, what is wrong with the Bill?

Well according to Professor Lindsay Paterson said it contains no proposals for how local authorities should tackle an “extremely difficult” long-term problem of raising standards.

Do you see what I mean about a lack of talent, this crap is like someone offering you a hot pie and when you try to eat it, you find out it is cold and when the crust is lifted up there is no filling inside.

Creating a legal obligation for the worst schools to improve would make no difference, because firstly, teachers are already doing “the best they can” for their children and secondly, education isn’t solely a matter for teachers. If the pupils don’t get the right support and engagement then legal obligation or not; it fails them in every sense!

This legislation is pointless and reminds me of the movie ‘Downfall’, you may remember Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler issuing orders for armies that had been wiped out to attack.

In the World at War series, someone who was close to Hitler said the Fuhrer used to wave his arms about saying ‘attack here, attack there, and took no account of practical difficulties’. Well that is what the backward SNP is like; they don’t have a clue what they are doing or what is expecting of them; so they just bumble along making it up.    

Professor Paterson is correct when he says Scottish ministers should conduct in-depth research, this echoes what I said on occasion regarding some of the rubbish being spout out by the SNP re their wisdom on justice.

To have such an expert as Professor Paterson speak is something that the SNP should be concerned about, and then listen to, on top of this Scotland’s councils back his concerns.

Teaching is a massive job, and I speak as a former teacher at Glasgow University where I taught fitness in my youth.

One of the ‘rights’ of the new Bill is that parents of preschool children are to be given the right to request primary lessons in Gaelic.

I know of only one person who speaks Gaelic, and if Sturgeon and Constance think that there will be a massive uptake for this they are going to be sadly mistaken.

Prof Paterson said:

“Proposing a law to outlaw inequality is futile. This is a declaration of intent but a law does not create any new knowledge about how to reduce inequalities or understand why some schools or pupils underperform. It’s doing something irrelevant. Is the Scottish Government saying there are certain teachers who are resisting that knowledge and are not doing the best they can for their children?”

Good points.

So, instead of effective law, we have a declaration of intent, we have had a ‘Declaration of Cineworld’, and we all know how that turn out, rather badly for the Scottish National Party.

This Bill is a paper shuffling exercise nothing more, it is ‘working with partners’ nonsense, be seen to be doing something when nothing is actually happening.

Only 3.9 per cent of pupils in Scotland's most deprived communities managed to get three A grades in their Higher exams compared to 24.2 per cent in the wealthiest places.

So, can this be fixed?

The answer is yes, it is a matter of culture.

Pupils will response to a culture that they can invest in mentality, my time at Glasgow University as a teacher was successful. I realised early on, remembering something wasn’t enough, they had to understand it and be able to analyse. Consequently I taught the elite of the university because I made them the elite, in fact the teaching staff used to ask my training partners for advice.

Unveiling the Bill, Angela Constance, the Scottish Education Minister, said:

“This Government is absolutely committed to ensuring Scotland is the best place to grow up, with every child given the best chance to succeed, and the provisions of this Bill will help us achieve that aspiration.”

How does the fact that there are no proposals in the Bill achieve that?

Simple things impress simple people!

I have said in the past, the people in the SNP have a habit of dumping shit on others and leave them to sort it out, this Bill is another classic example of this modus operandi.

Liz Smith, Scottish Tory young people spokesman, said:

“These are the usual hard words from the Scottish Government on a critical issue, without a single idea of how to turn these words into action. It’s all very well coming up with a legal requirement, but as we’ve seen with patient waiting times, it hardly guarantees success.”

Some time ago, I came up with the idea of community colleges run out of schools where people could sign and get extra education; the money could be funded from different sources.

Type into Google; ‘George Laird’ and ‘Community Colleges’ if you wish to see some of my back posts on this subject. It is time that Scotland moved towards a different education system, four tier education. Primary, secondary, community college, higher and further education model!

An idea I also had was for Japanese style cramming after school sessions, this idea has been very successful in Japan for pupils who are keen to set themselves on a career path. A teacher, one of whom I know does additional teaching for her pupils who are learning languages so their grades are pretty good, why, because they are properly motivated. The pupils can see results but more than that they have a sense of direction and loyalty, they aren’t going to let their teacher down.

This Bill should be halted in its tracks and farmed out to several universities to set up working groups, once something meaningful has been thrashed out; then bring it back to Holyrood so a consensus can be reached.

Just yesterday on the blog, I wrote:

“The Quiet No blog shows in detail how cronyism operates which has resulted in the SNP being a political vacuum not just of ideas but also of a work ethic”.

It really is a political vacuum because this Education Bill as Professor Lindsay Paterson says is ‘futile’ and ‘irrelevant’.

Finally, I also wrote yesterday on the current Sturgeon mantra that ‘SNP women will get things done’, what did Angela Constance achieve, other than flag up her ignorance of education, demonstrate that she can’t provide solutions and then to cap it all, passes the buck onto others to do her work!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

7 comments:

  1. Poor Angela she suffers a sad affliction. Must be degrading knowing your colleagues think you're Alice Cooper in drag. But on a more serious point. She is exactly why people are against this nonsense of gender equality. Seems she has little respect for herself or women for that matter.

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  2. Education is critical to the long term success of an economy. Short term fixes achieve bugger all.

    I'm getting more and more concerned with the SNP's fixation with legislation on everything. Look at the bullshit of appointing a named person for every child. Why not leave it to the teachers who can identify if there are possible issues, then bring in the professionals.

    As to this obsession with bloody Gaelic, I have no problem with giving the facilities to those who wish to learn it. However, Gaelic is bloody useless for the economy.

    All the teachers I have met who have taught my eldest and currently teach my youngest are highly motivated individuals. People who give up their lunch times and Easter holidays to give pupils more time and support. Politicians are only interested in Education for political purposes. And because of this the proposals are always short-term and almost always useless.

    How about a change? In one of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, he appoints a private businessman to our equivalent of the Finance Secretary to sort out the economy. How about - as you suggest in the article - getting teaching professionals to develop a viable strategy for education. These political lightweights cannot see the benefits. Not only and most importantly to children, but also to their own long term political futures? Successful policies which benefit the electorate will reap its own rewards.

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  3. I see the 'Rev' is upset....

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/temporary-service-interruption/

    Over the appointment of his Bete Noire Kate Higgins, as a SPAD to Nicola Sturgeon...

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/a-short-interlude/

    1. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    26 March, 2015 at 11:05 am

    Kate Higgins is the root cause and the heart of the abuse I’ve endured for the past three years from people in the Yes movement based on utterly false and baseless accusations of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, racism, gingerism and just about any fucking idiotic smear you could think of. They’re incredibly offensive.


    You won’t find much by way of explanation on the site because unlike that group of people, I don’t believe it’s constructive for independence supporters to tear lumps out of each other in public. I’ve pretty much just put up with it all and blocked all the dickheads, and that’s also why the post was so short. I didn’t really want to be writing this comment.

    While Higgins was just a dim-witted honking nobody with a handful of followers who failed every time she put herself forward for any elected position, the situation was bearable. I’m less comfortable with her being someone with the ear of the First Minister and shaping the country I’m fighting for, not to mention spreading poison about this site from that position, as some in Yes Scotland did.

    Christ, I’d have been happier if the FM had hired Blair McDougall – at least he was just doing his job for his team, not shooting his own players in the back. Call it a crisis of faith.

    Happy?

    That’s the last comment I’ll be making on the matter. I expect to cool off a bit by next week and get back to work."

    Hmmm I'm so upset as Nicola's SPAD seems to have gotten right up Wingsys nose...

    I wonder why?


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  4. Awful, awful politician. But somehow a large minority of scots are bought in. Worrying!!

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  5. Dear Anon

    the real Alice Cooper in drag is a better looking women for many guys.

    George

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  6. Talking about gaffs, I read today the former SNP roads minister, useless Stewart Stevenson MSP wants the speed limit to be cut by 10 mph on all of Scotlands roads. He says, "To Save The Planet". Ahh, but hold on, this is the same Stewart Stevenson MSP who in the winter of 2010, brought many of Scotlands roads to A STANDSTILL because of his incompetence as roads minister. HE RESIGNED over the issue. Yet now, this useless plonker is coming out with garbage. So shut up Stewart Stevenson,, you cocked up once, so keep your daft ideas to yourself. Businesses would pay a very heavy price for your STUPID IDEA, but then what do you care, the trough keeps you going.

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  7. good to see the wee fanny Campbell falling out with them.

    He is a gobshite demented dwarf, who, if he actually fucking lived here would have his james hunt kicked in.

    A pity the GE isnt a year away, by then these fuckers would be at each others throats.

    Still maybe the fat man wont get in,the Holly Greg case looks like it may bite his fat spotty super injunction arse yet


    Keep up the good work



    Crookie


    ps love that picture

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