On the Scottish Government site today:
‘The gap between pupils from the most and least deprived areas who go on to university, college or a job after school has closed by over a fifth in one year, new figures show. The proportion of 2016/17 school leavers from the most deprived areas in a positive destination nine months after leaving school increased to 87.6% – reducing the gap with school leavers from the least deprived areas by 22%.’
Particularly encouraging, in a long list, are these massive improvements for one of the most disadvantaged groups:
- The percentage of looked after children achieving at least SCQF Level 5 (National 5 or equivalent) has increased from 15% in 2009/10 to 44% in 2016/17
- The gap in attainment between children looked after for the full year and all school leavers has narrowed from 62 percentage points in 2009/10 to 42 percentage points in 2016/17
https://news.gov.scot/news/poverty-gap-closing
This an important announcement on an issue of particular interest to most viewers. However, Reporting Scotland ignored the announcement on the 19th, when it was announced, and ignored it all day on the 20th. Yet, they seem recognise its importance at other times and have commonly reported on perceived problems in the new curriculum. Here are only a few from the last year:
New curriculum could be ‘disastrous’, says education expert – BBC News
Teaching union condemns Scottish schools shake-up – BBC News
Teaching in Scotland ‘an undoable job’ – BBC
Scottish Conservatives call for ‘reset’ of Curriculum for … – BBC.com
School curriculum expert’s momentum warning over delay – BBC News
That perceived problems in the new curriculum are commonly reported but evidence of its success is ignored suggests clearly, bias against the Scottish government.
Footnote: I’ll put a complaint in.
Talking-up Scotland 
You are being very energetic with your complaining. I greatly appreciate it. It will be interesting to read what their justification is.
While you might not receive a ‘mea culpa – very sorry’ answer, it might, in the longer term cause them to pause and ask if they are meeting the BBC Charter.
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I seem to be ‘on a roll’. May not last
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Please make it last John , you are the only voice as far as I can ascertain that is challenging the BBC in Scotland on an almost daily basis , which is very much required . You might ask what good is it doing , well the good it is doing is that they know you are looking over their shoulder at all times and will be pulling them up on every misdemeanour , it could even in the long term (if you can last that long because they will string it out ) , maybe start to change their one sided biased reporting . You wear them down , not the other way round ! . But not at the expense of your health ! .
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Is it possible for you to give your followers access to the complaints before you send them, so that we can add out signatures? I would gladly sign any and all of them!
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That passed through my mind to , glad someone else put it in writing , I would gladly sign .
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There is one education story on the BBC Scotland site – about placing requests from parents in Berwick-upon -Tweed to have their children educated in schools on our side of the border. In itself, this is an interesting story, but compared to the flagship education policy of the Scottish Government, which effects about 20% of our children, it is a bit of a space filler for the end of a news bulletin.
The omission of the data appears to be a wilful decision.
PS did you hear the aggressive interview of Mr Fergus Ewing on GMS, by Hayley Miller this morning. She repeated frequently and, made four successive attempts to interrupt on one answer. The story was premised on Mr Ewing having to respond to a press release by the opposition parties. It was putting a negative spin to detract from the announcement Mr Ewing will make at the Royal Highland Show. The subsequent interview with the Tory spokesperson was like stroking a fat cat.
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I noticed this to , however Fergus Ewing continued to talk over her , the same way Mundell does , and she eventually had to aplogise for interrupting him. Have noticed that Ivan McKee has started to do the same when he is interveiwed after FMQ , when he is cut off mid-sentence he just keeps talking to make his point .
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Aye I noticed that interview was awful – littered with interruptions as soon as she asked one question she started talking over him throughout the answer – but Hayley was struggling, I reckon, to find the ‘bad’ aspect of it and was talking over Fergus just to keep going at finding a negative nuance (butbutbut) – eventually, their (the BBC) conclusion for badness seemed to involve ‘they didn’t do it soon enough’… um, well, the FIRST firm plan throughout Scotland and the non-scottish parts of the UK, out of any public body, for ANYTHING, but is westminster to blame for all aspects of uncertainty? Are the other idle politicians to blame for this? Was Gove blamed for not putting in place something of substance (his ‘plan’ was said to be an outline report of suggested options just for the next year)? Nope, of course not, none of the Tories or Labour are to blame for Brexit and it’s lack of … lack of… organisation. It must be because the SNP are not working hard enough that it isn’t all miraculously coming together out of thin air.
Arrogant, elitist, and discriminatory – they really are. It seems like our Scottish Government is the only public body willing to make the effort to keep things in order.
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She was promoting a Tory press release, not a news story. It was a Tory attempt to spoil Mr Ewing’s forthcoming announcement and to herald Mr Gove’s appearance at the selfsame Royal Highland Show.
However, nowhere in the programme was there any mention of the education success story.
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Like others I admire your persistence in complaining to the BBC. There is much to complain about. I’ve said before that maybe your higher profile might help, and maybe that is the case right enough.
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