ABSTRACT
The Scottish education system is entirely different from that in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Office Education Department under the Secretary of State for Scotland oversees all matters of formal education in Scotland. A review of the curriculum, 5-14 has been carried out over the past four years. The Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum was served with the task of reviewing the curriculum. It was divided into six curriculum areas: 1 Language 2 Mathematics 3 Environmental studies 4 Expressive arts 5 Moral and religious studies 6 Cross-curricular areas. Review and Development Groups (they may be considered as the equivalent of the Task Groups of the English National Curriculum Council) were set up for each. As a result of their reports, published by the Scottish Office Education Department for consultation, guidelines for (1) and (2) have been produced. For (4), (5) and (6) work is still in progress; for (3), which includes our area of interest, a consultation process has now been undertaken.
