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Narrowing of the curriculum is spreading ‘like a virus’

Curriculum
A reduction in the number of subjects that Scottish pupils can study risks compromising the education of a generation, academics have warned politicians.

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has had the “unintended consequence” of students being able to take fewer exams, with the situation likened to a virus spreading around the country.

Professor Jim Scott of Dundee University, a former headteacher, told the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee: “We are in danger of a generation going past who have not had a good experience in education.”

Some local authorities have mandated their schools, almost without exception, to do six courses in S4, he said. About half of Scottish schools now only allow that number.

Prof Scott called for a mid-session review of CfE and, after unveiling a long document measuring all 357 secondary schools, added: “I have trouble saying to you that anything is improving in this at all.”

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