蘇格蘭教育體系正走向衰敗

By Madeleine Kearns

Once one of the best in the world， Scotlands education system has been steadily marching backwards for the past 10 years. From the outside， it seems baffling： why， given that Scottish spending per pupil is among the highest in the world， are things going so wrong？ From the inside， its far easier to understand. You can explain it in three words： Curriculum for Excellence.

Id heard stories about it before I started training as a teacher. By the time I qualified—in April last year—how I wished Id listened to them. The story starts in 2010， when the new system was introduced with four aims： to create“confident individuals”， “successful learners”， “responsible citizens” and “effective contributors”. Perhaps the meaning of these phrases was clear to those who came up with them. But as I found out， many teachers cant recall—let alone explain—them.

Picture a grey Glasgow sky and underneath， a cosy school staffroom. “What are they called again？ Successful contributors？ Effective learners？” one teacher with 30 years experience asks. “No， no. It is the learners who are successful； the contributors are effective！” a student teacher replies helpfully.

The idea of teaching had been turned on its head. Rather than stick to a topic—like English or chemistry—we had to mix them up according to a bizarre formula created in the devolved1 parliament. In 1999， the new MSPs2 had been given power over the school system—so decided to use it. When the SNP3 came to power， the shake-up began. Devolution made a nations children into guinea pigs.

So instead of straightforward maths lessons， wed have “interdisciplinary learning”. Bar charts would be shoehorned4 into lessons about Shakespeare. For a teacher to perform “active learning”， the “learners” had to be constantly entertained. Then came the demand for“collaborative learning”， which means group work， where nothing gets done.

Exams were to be judged by classwork， which of course created plenty of scope for foul play5. And not only by pupils. One experienced teacher told me of “the pass factory” in her school， a place where pupils go for unlimited attempts on core assessments. Gaming the system6 is particularly noticeable in middle-class areas， where children pay for private tutors in order to be coached through exams. In some cases， tutors actually write the coursework for them.

In English， graphic novels crept7 their way into classrooms. Literature and media studies were fused. Presumably to cater for this， Penguin8 even published an emoji series of Shakespeares plays. This is new， certainly， but is it progress？ Glaring ignorance of world geography or history is not just permissible， but expected. In history， for example， its normal for pupils to study the Second World War year after year， and merely be assessed at different levels， constant assessment being the SNPs only guarantee. The number of pupils studying French or German has halved.

All of this was supposed to empower teachers and give them more say. But the SNP failed to do its homework， and it didnt quite turn out like that. And so， despite teacherssceptical willingness， the whole project has become seen as a sick joke. In the staffroom， the Curriculum for Excellence is known as the “curriculum for excrement9”.

I know quite a few of the dropouts now. Theres the Frenchman with a degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne， who stormed out of our school placement10 after a disagreement about the quality of his teaching. A fellow secondary school teacher who， due to unmanageable stress， now tutors young offenders rather than return to the classroom. A once enthusiastic primary teacher who said to me， “Id rather do anything—anything—than go back.” At the last count， there were almost 700 vacant teaching posts in Scotland. Thats around 21，000 pupils who are missing teachers.

In the staffroom of one school where I taught， there was a poster. It read， “Being a teacher is easy. Its like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire. Youre on fire. Everything is on fire. And youre in hell.”Sometimes， on breaks between classes， I would sit and stare at it. I did not see the funny side； for the teachers， or for the pupils， who are the principal victims of a system that is so visibly failing.

蘇格蘭的教育體系曾經是世界上最好的教育體系之一，過去十年來卻一直在穩步倒退。從外部來看，這似乎令人費解：蘇格蘭學生的人均教育開支是世界上最高的，為什么還會出現如此嚴重的問題呢？從內部來看，要理解起來就容易得多了。你可以用四個字來解釋：卓越課程。

我在開始接受教師培訓之前，就已經聽說過關于卓越課程的故事了。到去年四月，我獲得教師資格的時候，我多希望我當時認真聽了這些故事。故事始于2010年，當時推出了新的教育體系，有四大目標：培養“自信的個人”、“成功的學習者”、“負責任的公民”和“有效的貢獻者”。也許這些短語只有那些想出這套說法的人才清楚是什么意思。但是，我發現許多教師根本記不清這些目標，更不用說去解釋它們了。

想象一下這幅畫面，在格拉斯哥灰色的天空之下，有一間舒適的教師辦公室。“怎么說來著？成功的貢獻者？有效的學習者？”一位有著30年教齡的老師問道。“不，不。是成功的學習者，有效的貢獻者！”一位實習老師幫忙回答道。

教學理念發生了巨大轉變。我們不再只是固定學習單個學科——比如英語或化學——相反，我們必須根據權力下放后的蘇格蘭議會制定的某種奇怪的方案來將這些學科混合起來。1999年，新蘇格蘭議會議員被授予了管理教育系統的權力——因此決定使用這一權力。蘇格蘭民族黨上臺之后，變革就開始了。權力下放讓整個國家的孩子變成了實驗室的小白鼠。

因此，我們不再只是簡簡單單地上數學課，而要進行“跨學科學習”。……