I loathe the Scottish Government

[Dineasair]

I loathe the Scottish Government. I want to see the SNP/Green Party coalition roast in hell! They can take any MSP who voted for the Gender Reform Bill or the Hate Crime Laws with them. Is it now a hate crime for a Scottish Woman to say that?

Not only that, if you don’t use the actual words required you get marked down. Synonyms are not acceptable. My friends daughter dropped a grade because of this.
The result of this is pupils are unable to formulate an argument or point of view for themselves, then develop that and present it in a logical way.

And violence is growing so bad that teachers are threatening to go on strike because it is totally unaddressed. At which point will Jenny Gilruth stop spouting on about consulting and reviews and discussions and actually DO SOMETHING? Do we have to sit and wait for 2 years time when even the most Indy-mad nutters will finally kick them out.

Examining students like that means they don't actually develop an understanding of the subject, just the exam. It's madness.

Developing an understanding of the subject is detrimental because it means you base your answers on that rather than repeating the learnt phrases required to get the mark. My DS had the same problem as Linear’s friend’s child though fortunately outwith exams so he could address it in time.

DS did Nat 5s last year and the learning of how to pass the exam was very formulaic. I think Business studies was particularly bad for it - all the "command words" which the kids had to learn. It was all about what to say in the correct structure and less about understanding the topic. I totally get why teachers play the game and teach to the test but it doesn't foster a love of learning does it?

I was horrified by the way French is taught too. DS just memorised everything and regurgitated it.

His computing teacher for higher said that DS needed to be careful i. The exam as he could write code far more efficiently than was required for the exam but would drop marks because it didn't tick all the correct boxes. 🙄

Music is a great example of what’s wrong with the exam system! It’s far more important to the SQA that a student plays a grade 4 piece perfectly than a grade 8 piece with a few errors, the significantly easier piece would get full marks, the harder piece not, despite showing a much higher level of skill.

Taking SQA art is an exercise in procedure over talent. And please let’s not talk about PE where a 25m swim is the safest option over a team sport where you are subject to how your team mates perform/behave.

And now Glasgow Council are looking to issue parking permits based on emissions. Another idea thought up by an Apprentice candidate.

Yes!!!! Advanced higher music 🫣
My son had taken grade 8 in two instruments by the time he took his advanced highers but regurgitated his grade 4 pieces from four years earlier when he was age 13 to get 100% in the practical element. It's like gaming the system with no incentive to develop and improve.

Actually it may have been grade 5, but whatever.......

Totally agree about music. I was furious when I realised too late that DS had picked two ridiculously tricky pieces to play on his saxophone when he could have just played some piss easy plinky plonky on the glockenspiel. They didn't advise him well.

Totally agree with everything on this thread but I’ve never voted SNP so it’s not surprising I agree. The centralisation of one giant hospital for Glasgow the biggest city in Scotland has been a failure, and now shown to be poorly built as well, education which was excellent is failing, and wasteful enterprises like baby boxes to everyone is just silly.
Also what is it with the SNP / greens and cycle lanes? Everywhere in Glasgow roads are being made into cycle lanes where I’ve rarely to see anyone on them. Half finished roads everywhere , Byres Rd is a good example of taking something and making it actually worse!
My elderly mum cannot cycle or get a bus she relies on me to drive her to appointments but we are increasingly sitting in traffic jams. We have made it a game, cheer if you spot a cyclist, but we don’t cheer often.

It baffles me that the SNP itself, and its members can look at their parlous record in office, and still believe absolutely that they could successfully run an independent Scotland. I wouldn't trust them to run an independent grocer's.

Have to agree with the dumbing down of some exams. I did 2 modern languages at o grade and higher, o grade we had some sort of story board thing which we were given 5 minutes or less to look at, then had to tell the story of what was happening in the pictures. Can’t remember what we did at higher but it was defo not anything you prepared in advance and just regurgitated.

Good news; Glen Sannox is going to get repaired… …with parts from Glen Rosa.

And Ferguson shipyard have made the shortlist for another ferries contract. Wonderful.

Funnily enough, they have done so despite not meeting the stated requirements to do so…

@HappierTimesAhead - that sounds like a wonderful idea to me (not) - what could possibly go wrong?!

And it looks like the Greens are going to pull their support for the National Care Service Bill....hard to see how Scot Gov will bring it back from the brink now. Might go through as a radically altered piece of legislation that says and does very little at all.

Part of the problem with the NCS Bill was it already said very little with all the detail to be decided elsewhere…

100% this. Scot gov lauded the idea of a 'framework bill' seemingly blind to the fact that people cannot support a framework bill as they have no idea what the detail will actually look like. And no one trusts them to do what they say anyway.

And another one...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnvje5d0j62o

Three chauffeur driven visits to Hampden and one to Pittodrie. 🙄

It's not even surprising now.

& I bet all the rest of us are supposed to use public transport to get to sports fixtures 🙄

Or walk, or use the cycle lanes ruining our streets! God forbid, you are disabled, just get on a bike!