As you may know by now, Pasi Sahlberg of Finland described the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) in his book Finnish Lessons. GERM is testing, accountability and choice. It is a nasty virus that destroys creativity. Finland opposes GERM and its schools and students are thriving.

Here is another nation that rejects GERM: Scotland.

Melissa Benn, a prominent supporter of the public sector in Britain., praises Scotland for its wise policies.

“Scotland publishes no official league tables, although individual schools obviously release their results. (Even Wales now publishes the results of secondary schools grouped into one of five bands.) The Scottish government is moving towards greater school self-evaluation and has, over the past decade, slowly rolled out a progressive “curriculum for excellence”, in stark contrast to our own government’s speedily devised, overly prescriptive and increasingly contested programmes for learning.”

While England is plunging headlong into GERM madness, even going so far as to say that teachers need no particular training to teach–just subject matter knowledge–Scotland believes in “rigorous teacher training” and plans to require all teachers to have a masters’ degree, as Finland does.

If you are interested in GERM in the UK, you should read Melissa Benn’s book School Wars: The Battle for Britain’s Education.

I have heard that Melissa Benn is my counterpart in London. We corresponded a few months ago, and I recommend her work to you.