Snowballing fiasco

If the analysis provided by the parent councils (Opinion: Deeply worrying; SN 14/7/14) is accurate, the SIC education department and education committee appear either incompetent to manage the type of change they are proposing or, alternatively, to be making a perverse attempt to push through a half-baked, politically-inspired initiative, on the false premise that Education Scotland have demanded it, when they haven’t.

A senior SIC official reportedly stated to the education committee on 2 July that Education Scotland have said that Shetland’s junior high schools are incompatible with the requirements of the so-called “Curriculum for Excellence” (CfE).

Education Scotland accepting the SIC’s contention that Shetland’s existing junior high system is incompatible with the requirements of CfE is not the same thing as Education Scotland asserting, without prompting, that it is so.

How many junior high schools will be closed in Orkney due to “incompatibility with CfE”?

Despite the cacophony of protest, intelligent protest, the full council is presiding blithely over a snowballing fiasco.

None of this inspires confidence; quite the reverse. Unless the SIC can provide a prompt, convincing rebuttal of the parent councils’ analysis, it might reasonably be expected that Audit Scotland will “come-a-knocking” at the Toon Hall.

John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar