Hope

It has been one of those days where meeting has followed on meeting and event on event. I am posting this after 11.00pm having just walked back to my flat across Edinburgh from this year's SNP Parliamentary Group dinner.

During the afternoon I met with a fascinating group of teachers from Ireland & Scotland ( including Stephen Glen Lee the Head Teacher of Luing & Easdale schools in Argyll) who are pioneering the teaching of Human Rights in school. There is much to be learned from their pilot but I was late in greeting them because of another meeting full of positive hope.

The delegation from Myanmar, pictured above, are all former University Rectors who are now either in the national Parliament or holding administrative or Ministerial office. They are part of a committee chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi which is trying to devise a new structure for Higher Education in Myanmar after 50 years of repression and the periodic - and lengthy - closure of all the country's universities in order to prevent student protest.

We had a good discussion about governance and co-operation and how Scotland might provide both positive examples and practical help. Two of the members of this distinguished group had studied in Edinburgh which made their interest in - and admiration for - Scottish education all the more tangible and , probably, productive.