It is dangerous to assume that one’s experience of High School is the same as that for every other Scot who has ran that six year gauntlet. Not everyone will have had their trousers pulled down onstage during the school production (as rehearsed) or had to fast talk one’s way out of stepping into the middle of gang warfare (not rehearsed). Alternatively, some others may have had their heads flushed down the toilets, something that was promised me but thankfully never materialised, not that it didn’t stop me expecting it at every turn for the first few weeks. I’m just glad I didn’t ‘self-dunk’ over the school holidays to mentally and phyiscally prepare myself, like some sort of primary seven Marine.

Anyway, one thing that all Scottish High School pupils will have faced is the option of six years of education. S1 and S2 are exam and trouble free so pupils start getting properly motivated in S3 and S4, seeking to pass their standard grades; they then ideally find extra gears of motivation for Highers in S5, putting in their first ever stint of months long study; many students then achieve the grades that they need to get into university, finding out close to the start of S6 which institution they will be attending. In such instances, I would imagine most pupils would do as I did, drop classes to the bare minimum and spend as much time as possible hanging out in the common room and/or playing sport, motivation well and truly on the backburner.

Moving onto university, a sudden, sharp burst of passion and enthusiasm for one’s chosen subject is soon replaced by the peer pressure, seductive socialising and general waste of time that is Fresher’s Week and most of the year that follows. Time passes and the need to justify those four long, hedonistic years starts to bite so a 2:1 is salvaged with some last minute cramming in later years.

To chart the levels of motivation and application over these key years for any student, years that will probably shape the rest of their lives, the following could quite reasonably be applied (the first red arrow being S6 at High Achool and the second red arrow being first year university):

Is it not better to just scrap sixth year for those who do not need it and get pupils out there earning and learning? Isn’t it worth trying to smooth that line out and remove those two dips?

The fledgling education debate north of the border seems to be focussing on ways to finance the current process but if we improve and contract the current process then it will inevitably be more affordable. Not necessarily all problems solved but let’s at least get some quick wins under our belt before trying to pass on Tory cuts with no extra revenue.

Examples of such quick wins could include:

– Make Scottish degrees three years in length, instantly saving 25% from the total cost of a typical university qualification and stamping out what tends to be a wasted year for unfocussed students
– Promote the mentality of only doing a sixth year if you are actively studying towards something. Seeing out a year before taking a job or university/college place that is already awaiting you is a waste of a school’s resources and a waste of a student’s time
– Create opportunities for work experience for the period between receiving an unconditional university offer and the start of university, raising money for the studies to come and real life experience that will make studying all the more relevant and valuable
– Matching what a university student earns in a year, over a certain limit, with funding towards fees and/or living allowance

Many people are worried about a double-dip recession but we currently have a double-dip education system that creates unnecessary obstacles for students and prevents from them even wanting to get ahead by offering such tantalising opportunities to muck around and not do very much.