While we are constrained by copyright regulations meantime to publish, as pdf files, two of the most comprehensive volumes ever written about the history of Scottish education up to 1969, we feel it important to alert scholars and interested readers to the availability of the following volumes in libraries, or for purchase,

THE HISTORY OF SCOTTISH EDUCATION
Volume One: From the beginning to 1872
SEN 340 07157 5

THE HISTORY OF SCOTTISH EDUCATION
Volume Two: From 1872 to the present day
SEN 340 09548 2

by
James Scotland, Principal of Aberdeen College of Education (1969)
University of London Press Ltd.
St Paul’s House, Warwick Lane, London, EC4

The value the above publications can be gauged initially not only from their extensive bibliographies, but also from this quotation from the first paragraph of the Preface, common to each of the two volumes.

“It is more than forty years since Alexander Morgan published his Rise and Progress of Scottish Education. John Kerr’s Scottish Education, School and University came out before the First World War. And these are the only two histories of education in this country which may be reasonably claimed to be complete. …… ….. There seems …. to be a place for a new comprehensive history, and this book attempts to fill it.”

Recommended Bibliography for the study of the History of Scottish Education

In December 2016 I looked at Education as a result of the International Pisa scores. The influential Pisa rankings, run by the OECD, are based on tests taken by 15-year-olds in more than 70 countries.

I was interested in the Pisa Scores and noted the press comments in Scotland on how we're seeing a decline in our rankings.  I was asked how Canada did and confess I didn't know but have since found out that...

Canada ranked 2nd for Reading, 7th for Science and 10th for Maths.
Australia Ranked 16th for Reading, 14th for Science and 24th for Maths
UK Ranked 22nd for Reading, 15th for Science and 27th for Maths
USA Ranked 24th for Reading, 25th for Science and 40th for Maths.
Singapore was overall in first place.

Scotland trails behind England and Northern Ireland - recording its worst results in these Pisa rankings.

The small Asian country Singapore focused relentlessly on education as a way of developing its economy and raising living standards.

And from being among the world's poorest, with a mix of ethnicities, religions and languages, Singapore has overtaken the wealthiest countries in Europe, North America and Asia to become the number one in education.

Prof Sing Kong Lee, vice-president of Nanyang Technological University, which houses Singapore's National Institute of Education, said a key factor had been the standard of teaching.

"Singapore invested heavily in a quality teaching force - to raise up the prestige and status of teaching and to attract the best graduates," said Prof Lee.

The country recruits its teachers from the top 5% of graduates in a system that is highly centralised.

All teachers are trained at the National Institute of Education, and Prof Lee said this single route ensured quality control and that all new teachers could "confidently go through to the classroom".

This had to be a consistent, long-term approach, sustained over decades, said Prof Lee.

There is an article this week about Scottish Education in the Scottish Review which you can read at: http://www.scottishreview.net/WalterHumes111d.html

Scotland's scores for maths, reading and science all declined in the latest set of Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) figures

Bet your house on the teachers. The OECD's education guru Andreas Schleicher has a catchphrase: "No education system can be better than the quality of its teachers". And this week's TIMSS rankings have the same message - success is inseparably linked to the supply of good quality teachers. Whatever headline-grabbing wheezes might be deployed by education ministers, it all comes down to investing in teachers.

Long-term planning in a short-term world. It might take 10 years before changes in an education system make any positive difference in global rankings. That's not much of an incentive for the fleeting life-span of ministerial office. A recent reforming education minister in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires entered office as the third minister in 12 days. But the big message from global rankings is that what is needed is consistency and continuity.

It's not a knockout competition. Education league tables are based on the proportion of young people reaching some benchmark of ability. The winners will be those who assume that everyone should cross that finishing line, including the poorest - and that is a distinguishing feature of the top Asian systems. They put the best teachers with the weakest pupils to make sure everyone gets to a basic standard. In contrast, much of the western approach to education is more like the Grand National, with the expectation that very few of the horses starting the race will still be there at the finish. And the rankings reflect this fundamental difference.

I also noted a news item on the BBC called "Life Chances are set by the age of 3" which I believe was a 40 year study in New Zealand where they followed 3 year olds through their life.  They found that 3 year olds that had problems went on to be by far the highest percentage in prison, the highest number on social security and the highest number with health issues and so on.  They thus conclude that the early years of a child's life is by far the most important time.