MOST, if not all, families have probably got family sayings that encapsulate particular situations that recur in one form or another. One of the sayings in my family is based on a story, probably apocryphal, about a young newly married couple, very much in love, who came back from a wonderful honeymoon having taken lots of photographs.

Full of enthusiasm, they went to visit the wife’s grandfather to show him the photos. He took the bundle of prints and, without saying a word, slowly leafed through them, looking at the photo on top of the bundle and then moving it to the back. When he got to the end, still without a word, he started again at the beginning. And went through the process again until he got to one photo which he held out and uttered the immortal words: “That’s the worst!”

So, when I see the response of the likes of the BBC and Jackson Carlaw (FM promises new action on maths and science, The National, December 6) to the recent figures from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), “that’s the worst” comes immediately to mind. There are some institutions and individuals for whom “that’s the worst” is the default position. It is not a healthy mindset. Far better for your mental and physical health is to follow a piece of advice I remember being given by a very wise educationalist with whom I was privileged to work: “Look for the good!”

Back to PISA then. First a caveat. From my many years in teaching and exam construction, I know for certain that it is virtually impossible to ensure that questions do not vary in difficulty from year to year even when they are testing the same outcomes in the same curriculum. Apparently small variations in the language used or the way the question is put can make huge differences in the resulting answers. Imagine then the difficulty, nay impossibility, of ensuring that questions are of the same standard across many languages and curricula.

Key scientific, mathematical and statistical concepts are those of “error” and “significance”. Any measurement is subject to a margin of error or uncertainty. The size of that uncertainty determines the reliability of the conclusions drawn from the measurements.

The uncertainty inherent in trying to assess ability across many cultures and curricula means variations need to be large to have any significance. Small differences have little or no significance. PISA is intended to be a snapshot of the education system to guide and inform policy makers and education professionals in order to improve the curriculum or education system. Weaponising it in order to score political points is a deplorable misuse.

To go back to “look for the good!”, we should celebrate the fact that performance in language and reading has improved, take note of the relatively insignificant declines in maths and science, and take steps to improve matters as deemed appropriate but we must be aware of the unavoidable limitations of the methodology and not allow politicians to influence decision making for political, rather than educational, reasons.

Julian Smith
Limekilns

LET’S get some real journalistic analysis on this important subject from The National please, instead of just quoting Jackson Carlaw! On education and the PISA rankings, specifically Scotland’s score was the average for OECD countries in maths, it was above average in science and is higher in literacy than Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Denmark, Norway and Germany who all sit in the top 20 for literacy.

If a total of 18 other countries are higher than Scotland in maths, that still means that in maths, Scotland remains in the top 20 out of the 90 countries that take part in the OECD PISA programme. Being amongst the top 20 in the world can hardly be described as “the house being on fire”.

Nor is enough reported about the serious international criticism made against the PISA programme, that it pays no attention to “outcomes.” Outcomes are important are they not? Two-thirds of pupils leaving school with a Higher qualification, up from less than half when the SNP took office. Thirty per cent leaving school with five Highers, up from 20% when the SNP took office. The attainment gap narrowing since the SNP took office.

I find Jackson Carlaw’s criticism to be significantly over done and I am concerned that The National appears to have fallen in line to see the worst in Scotland’s education system.

You know, the BBC’s Northern Ireland page reported on the PISA rankings with this headline: “Pisa tests: NI pupils better than world average at reading”. Did NI score above Scotland or below Scotland in literacy? Below! Significantly below! Get the point?

Thom Muir
Via web