Mr Russell said Mr Gove misunderstood the whole nature and purpose of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms and the definition of “rigour”.
The Scottish minister, who was addressing the annual general meeting of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said Mr Gove’s attack was a “badge of honour” but also a slight on everyone who had been working hard to deliver the overhaul north of the border in the last decade.
Mr Gove, who went to school in Scotland, had urged Mr Russell to take off his “Nationalist blinkers” and follow an international trend towards more testing.
However, last weekend Mr Russell responded in front of a packed hall of delegates. He said: “His definition of the word ‘rigour’ is essentially systematised rote learning in which you politically decide the content of the curriculum and apply what one might describe as 19th century teaching methods to it. That is not where we are going in Scotland and it doesn’t work.
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