Critics attack SNP for failing to lead Holyrood education debates

Scottish Labour said the last SNP Government-led debate was held on November 2, 2017. 

It comes amid continuing controversy over education standards and school reforms.

Scotland’s performance in maths and science recently hit a record low in international rankings. 

Iain Gray, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, criticised the Government for failing to bring forward a debate on schools in Holyrood for 25 months. 

He said: “It is extremely disappointing that the SNP claims education is its top priority, while its actions show the opposite.

“The SNP has failed to bring a debate on schools to parliament for two straight years.

“It is time for the Education Secretary [John Swinney] to face questions in the chamber about why his government has brought Scotland’s education system to its knees.”

Mr Gray pointed to problems with teacher recruitment and a “growing crisis in additional support needs”, as well as concerns over a narrowing of the curriculum.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described education, and closing the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils, as her number one priority. 

However her Government’s record in charge of Scotland’s schools has come under repeated attack. 

Controversy has focused on the SNP’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms, which were introduced in 2010.

Earlier this month, international education tests reported record low results in science and maths among Scottish school pupils.

The 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) survey – which measures the performance of 600,000 15-year-olds worldwide – showed reading levels among Scotland’s children have risen since 2015, but maths and science have both seen slight drops.

Pupils performed substantially worse in all three subjects than they did when comparisons began around the turn of the millennium.

Efforts to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils appear to have stalled over the last few years, while England performed substantially better than Scotland in science and maths.

Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at Edinburgh University, previously told The Herald middle-class students are paying the price for school reforms in Scotland.

He said the gap in reading level between rich and poor children has narrowed over the last decade partly because the performance of the better-off is falling.

He issued a damning analysis of the Pisa results, in which a third of Scottish secondary schools took part.

Mr Paterson said: “In reading, Scotland has taken a decade of enormous upheaval in schools to get back to where it started.

“In mathematics and science, the decline continues. In England, the advance is steady in reading and mathematics; there is a weaker decline in science than in Scotland.

“Despite a decade of austerity, students facing difficult socio‐economic circumstances do better in England than in Scotland.”

He added: “Scotland’s overall performance is best described as stagnating in mediocrity.”

The think-tank Reform Scotland has said a lack of reliable data means less is known about the performance of Scotland’s schools than at any time since the 1950s.

It said informed discussion is no longer possible because the Scottish Government has scrapped domestic surveys of pupil performance and withdrawn from international surveys.

John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary, defended his record.

He said: “Teacher numbers have increased for the fourth year in a row, with primary teachers at their highest level since 1980. 

“Recent data shows, for the second year running, increases in attainment across literacy and numeracy.  

“We also know that the attainment gap between the most and the least disadvantaged has narrowed.

“I accept we need to deliver even greater improvement and I have always been happy to engage in constructive discussions with parties in the chamber and through [Holyrood’s] Education and Skills Committee.”