Serious issue for Scottish education as curriculum for excellence fails on numeracy

"The experiment that is ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ has now been shown to be failing signally in what is arguably the most important skillset to be developed, if Scotland and its people are to be successful – numeracy."

"In the last three years, the standards of numeracy have been shown to have fallen by no less than 7% in Scotland’s primary schools – the irreplaceable foundation area of skills for life."

"Young children are hungry for facts and for ‘controls’ – the skills and techniques that put them in charge of the world around them – ‘so various, so beautiful, so new’."

"They are not yet equipped to deal with abstract thought and to form opinions as such – psychological facts that ought to direct the nature of curricula at primary and at secondary level."

"The failure of the demonstrably content-free zone that is Curriculum for Excellence [the teaching profession has an in-house and much less flattering name for it] in numeracy – the great British Achilles heel – could not be more alarming."

"If the right level of foundation knowledge and skills is not acquired by children during their primary school years, there is no real second chance to repair that damage."

: The Numeracy element of the 2013 Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy, published on 30th April 2014, is available online here. It surveyed 10.5 thousand

http://forargyll.com/2014/05/serious-issue-for-scottish-education-as-curriculum-for-excellence-fails-on-numeracy/