Scotland

Grrrrrr I hate lazy people. There is simply no excuse for laziness especially if you are getting paid really well for it. For a long, long time I have complained very strongly about the lack of teaching from certain teachers at Sir E Scott School in Tarbert on the Isle of Harris. There is one teacher that refuses to teach outright! How can this be allowed to continue?

Last year I became aware of the most desparate situation with regards to this individual. An extremely  talented pupil had managed to gain an “UNGRADED” mark in his one element of his Higher. The really infuriating thing is that this guy is so talented he is already internationally known! Furthermore his teacher was teaching only 2 PUPILS – that’s right the ratio was 1:2 where in the world do you get a class size of 2? So where is the excuse? The pupil has proved his ability to learn to the extreme and yet this teacher did NOT teach him. Instead he taught himself with the aid of a local tutor but he was doomed to failure from the start.

 Now as a parent I was already aware of the refusal of this teacher to teach and I approached the head of Sir E Scott School who said he would investigate. In the same year a pupil about to sit their ‘O’ grade had realised that they did not have a clue about the subject. After many complaints the head provided a bunch on material such as CD’s so that the pupil could TEACH THEMSELVES. The damn cheek of it! There is a teacher there not doing his job and the head’s solution is to provide a damn teacher in a BOX.

 At the start of this year the head was informed that this pupil was to take their higher in the subject so the teacher had better teach. It was made very clear that there could be no excuses and certainly no “TEACHER IN A BOX” solution this time. Furthermore it was made clear that there would be legal action taken if the teacher did not do his job.

Guess what? Yes, the teacher refused to teach and the head DID NOTHING. The class size was again only 2 pupils!

As it stands the pupil will have to start again next year and take their higher next year. There will be official complaints going into the local council with regards to the behaviour of this teacher and the head.

Further to this it would also appear that a further sub-standard teacher is refusing to do their job and forcing pupils to produce sub-standard work to be submitted. I really do mean forced! Sir E Scott School is providing useless materials so the work done is guaranteed to fail. How disgusting is that?

So the result is that for the sake of 2 lazy teachers and a lazy head the school has developed a terrible reputation. This is a DAMN DISGRACE as the school has some of the finest teachers in Scotland. I know of one teacher that has instilled such a sense of enjoyment in study that it is difficult for puils to fail. I know of other teachers that dedicate some of their own personal time to help pupils in need and ALL of the staff (excluding these 2 teachers and the head) take the education of every single pupil extremely seriously and would be extremely upset if they thought one of their pupils felt they were not getting a decent education.

Why can 2 teachers be allowed to bring disgrace to a school and destroy an excellent reputation that the vast majority of teachers have worked extremely hard to maintain?

Why is it that Sir E Scott School provides a “teacher in a box” as a solution to secondary school education?

I will write here when I know more about the legal actions being taken.

UPDATE (December ‘08)

I have been watching this situation for some time and, at the beginning of this year the teacher appeared to be making strides in improving the quality of music education. Unfortunately it would, in my opinion, appear that he was not adequately supported in this gigantuan task (I did contact the Head of Education to request additional support) and has been off ill for some time now. The temporary replacement music teacher is excellent and there have been marked improvements all ’round.