Letter: Back to basics

IT IS a long time since I read an article with which I so completely identified as that of Bill Jamieson (Perspective, 3 February). I am the product of a good senior secondary school in Glasgow, and I had a good, broad, basic grounding through primary school where our class numbered 42, and was one of four similar in our year.

Some of us went on to good university degrees, others worked in offices and apprentice schemes, to be found all over the West of Scotland in the late 1950s and 60s.

Now, the education system that was the backbone of a Scottish child's ability "to do" seems to be in freefall. A return to the basics is surely a pressing imperative before we find ourselves at the bottom of an educational ladder that contains our closest and better educated competitors.

Another important problem Mr Jamieson highlights is the attitude young Scots have to work and the responsibilities that go with it. The "sickie" and the sullen "It's no' my job and I'm finished", will spell the end of Scotland's ability to cope with, let alone succeed in, the 21st century.

We must put a quality, a respect and a competitiveness back into our education. More power to your elbow, Mr Jamieson

COLIN R STEVENSON

Strachur

Argyll