There are few sights more pitiful, more vexing or more predictable than the sight of teaching unions on the whinge. This time it is the EIS and the other unions representing teachers in Scotland. They are unhappy that the new Curriculum for Excellence – of which, for what little it may be worth I have, albeit anecdotally, heard some encouraging things – is being rushed into service too quickly. It has only been in development since 2004. Just as bad, apparently, the new National exams designed to replace the unfit Standard Grade are coming along too soon. Teachers are confused and unhappy and overworked and all the rest of it. The new exam, incidentally, won’t be sat until 2014.
Regardless of the merits of the teaching unions’ case, it is worth paying attention to the language they use in public. Here, for instance, is a report from yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday.
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