I was disappointed that the Education Convener and the SNP group of Councillors together with the Director of Education should have been so opposed to my amendment at the Education Committee on Monday night 26 March.
It was strange that they opposed an opportunity for even a small minority of subject departments in some of our secondary schools to have the option to defer entering pupils for the new National 4 and 5 examinations and take the existing Intermediate assessments. But this was only where this was the best interests of the pupils involved.
I was surprised that they chose to ignore this opportunity since it had been provided by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mike Russell MSP, in his letter last week.
In the same letter he promised some extra cash for Councils to help prepare teaching and learning materials for the new curriculum and the opportunity for secondary teachers to be granted two additional in-service training days. Since my amendment also included using the extra cash and taking the in-service days was defeated, I understand that the Director will need to return to a future meeting of the Education Committee if he changes his mind and wants to make use of these.
