Google better at advising teachers than Scotland’s curriculum body

LONDON - Leading education academics have concluded that the Internet search engine Google offers better advice to teachers than Scotland’s curriculum body.

The verdict comes as the Scottish Government admitted it was “abolishing” Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) rather than simply merging it with the school inspectorate HMIe.

Sue Ellis, a reader in literacy and language at Strathclyde University, said LTS had nothing “accurate or helpful” on its website.

Last week education secretary Michael Russell published a literacy action plan, which aimed to raise the levels of basic, reading and writing for all ages including adult.

“Curriculum for Excellence gives teachers and schools freedom to choose what they do, in order to meet the needs of their pupils,” Scotsman quoted Ellis as saying.

“But that freedom is of little use if teachers do not have easy access to reliable, up-to-date, research-informed information about the content and pedagogies that are likely to be most effective with different types of pupils.”

And Professor Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at Edinburgh University said teachers would be better advised to use Google if they wanted to find rigorous advice on what worked. ANI)