Scotland celebrates the passing of the Named Person

[UK Column News: 20 September 2019]

David Scott talks about the repeal of the Named Person legislation in Scotland:

"Well, yesterday was a bit of a red letter day... a brief moment of celebration, because Mr Swinney, the responsible minister, stood up in the Scottish Parliament and announced that the whole thing - at least in a legislative sense - was being scrapped. So here we see the report from the Christian Institute who led the legal challenge and led the `No to the Named Person` campaign... They`re saying `Named Person scheme axed by Scottish government. Parents are celebrating today after the Scottish government officially announced the end of the intrusive Named Person scheme. Three years after ...the Supreme Court ruled against key elements of the scheme, in a case spearheaded by the Christian Institute, the government has finally agreed to repeal the entire Named Person legislation`."

"So it`s all - at least in a statutory sense - going to go."

Brian Gerrish: "I was just going to say: `and this really shows people.` We have so many people who say: `Yes, we now understand what`s happening in this country, how all this crass legislation is being brought in, what can we do about it? And it has been consistent work by a relatively few - a relatively small group of people - that`s brought this change about in Scotland. I don`t know whether you`d like to add a bit to that."

David Scott: "Well it has. This is real people power because the state developed this in secret; it has every state department on board; it had all of the charities that receive significant government funding involved in developing the scheme. And all of the organisations that are meant to protect human rights were all either asleep at the wheel or actually enabling this to go forward. So it was left to a small number of individuals to tell the people what the scheme actually was, and the thing that really destroyed it - then the legal case was an excellent spearhead and did a lot of damage - but the thing that really destroyed it. [was] that they could not persuade the people to accept this intrusion into their lives and it was getting that message out that really turned the corner for them."

"So this is the Herald supporting it here as a political story. Swinney `humiliated` here as another of his flagship plans is scrapped. Now this is correct, the Scottish Government`s having a lot of failures at the moment, but really the... true story here is that a major move into fascism, into totalitarianism, has been defeated by public pressure and helped by the Supreme Court. It`s noticeable that the courts in Scotland all backed the government but when it went to the Supreme Court, the story was different."

 

"The BBC reported it - here we are. BBC News: `Named Person scheme scrapped by the Scottish government.` Now, in the very next line, this is the line they put in bold... underneath the article they said the following: `The Scottish government has scrapped its controversial plan to appoint a named person to safeguard the welfare of every child in the country`."

"So six years into the national campaign which they have been reporting all the way along, the BBC still get it wrong... I just want to emphasise how stupid this is, or craven, because this is the lie that the state`s been saying. This is the lie that the state`s been pushing the whole time. When there was a debate up in Inverness and the minister responsible then, Aileen Campbell, was getting ripped apart by people who knew what they were talking about, and she was on the phone, you could hear the adviser whisper to her `child protection` because the line has always been that this is about child protection; it`s about welfare. Welfare is defined in law; it`s risk of significant harm. There`s nobody in the country who`s saying that children should be put at risk of significant harm. That`s a lie by the BBC, right."

Emphasising once again that the Named Person was never about welfare, David Scott says: "It`s not about welfare; it`s about wellbeing, which means anything the government wants it to mean and is completely undefined. And six years into this campaign, the BBC is still pushing out the lie."

"It`s pathetic."

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More about the BBC`s coverage of the Named Person scheme is on Friday`s UK Column News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQhCPym6ev0

Social and Emotional Skills to be tested

"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published details of its new Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES). While the OECD has been administering international large-scale assessments on ‘cognitive skills’ and ‘competencies’ with both children and adults for many years, the new SSES survey represents a significant shift in focus to ‘non-cognitive’ aspects of learning and skills. While details of the science behind its cognitive skills and competencies tests are relatively well known, it is now becoming clear that the OECD’s social-emotional skills programme will emphasize the psychometric science of ‘personality’ measurement..."


"The OECD first began signalling its interest in measuring and assessing social and emotional skills in 2014... "

"Organisations including the global education business Pearson and the Nudge Unit have produced research summaries and guidance on developing SELS. The core idea behind many social-emotional learning and skills approaches is that the ‘non-cognitive’ aspects of learning are fundamentally linked to academic progress and to a range of social and economic outcomes, such as productivity, labour market behaviours and overall well-being..."

"Moreover, many advocates maintain, SELS are malleable and can be improved through direct teaching intervention... "

"Major lobbying groups based in the US have produced scientific justifications for focusing on SE learning and skills. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has produced its own meta-analyses on social-emotional learning research and evidence..."

"Terms used for SELS including ‘character,’ ‘growth mindset,’ ‘grit,’ ‘resilience,’ and other ‘non-cognitive’ or ‘non-academic’ ‘personal qualities’ are often used interchangeably and gain traction with different academic, practitioner and policymaking communities. ‘Character’ has become the policy focus for the Department for Education in the UK following the 2014 publication of a cross-party Character and Resilience Manifesto, while ‘grit’ has been favoured by the US Department of Education, as in its 2013 report Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance—Critical Factors for Success in the 21st Century. Emerging education policies in the European Union appear to emphasize ‘soft skills’ as a category that encompasses SELS..."

"In the US, SELS are a lucrative investment opportunity under the banner of ‘impact investing.’ These ‘pay for success’ schemes allow investment banks and wealthy philanthropies to invest in educational services and programs and then collect public money with additional interest as profits if they meet agreed outcomes metrics."

https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/pisa-for-personality-testing/

In Scotland SELS is promoted in Health and Wellbeing which teachers from every subject area are instructed to engage with as important for pupils in all aspects of Curriculum for Excellence.

At the same time academic standards in Scotland continue to fall.