PISA: 'We cannot afford to fall into hyperbole and cheap politics'

PISA is an international study which measures the ability of 15-year-olds ability in Maths, Reading and Science. It ascribes a score in each category which allows for international comparisons in performance and trends over time. It also measure a much wider range of information such as well-being, equality outcomes, and technology use. It reports every few years, with the last study being in 2018.

The OECD note that the drop in this year’s study compared to the last study in 2018 is ‘unprecedented’. Before this, there had only ever been a drop of four points between studies in Maths and five points in reading. This time it was 15 and 10 respectively, with science remaining stable.

Read more: PISA 2022: Scotland's education score dips but so does the global average

In Scotland, our standing in the PISA study has been declining for some time. Our scores have been reducing since the early 2000’s: a trend that predates the current Scottish Government, and stems from well over a decade before education infamously became Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘defining mission’. The decline has however accelerated in recent years.

That is why we cannot afford to fall into hyperbole and cheap politics on this. Though that is easy, it is too important for that.

These are Scotland’s lowest ever results in PISA and mean that our attainment in key areas has fallen below the average for the first time – though this is maybe less important than in other PISA studies. Given the reduction in attainment globally many nations have seen their scores go down, but their position in the international ranking improve.

Read more: PISA 2022 - Teachers well qualified but lack of staff hits Scottish schools

What is of key importance is what our scores mean for us. The reduction here has been most severe in Maths, where our score has decline by 18 points, which is almost the equivalent of an entire year of learning. The poverty-related attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils in Scotland is also larger than anywhere else in the UK and is above the OECD average.

I don’t think it is hyperbolic to call that a catastrophe.

It feels as though our education policy has fundamentally missed the point. We did not, and still have not, responded to the pandemic’s impact of schools with anything like the resources and urgency that has been needed. Staffing in Scotland has been raised as a key issue, for example.

Read more: PISA 2022 - What does the data really tell us about Scottish schools?

Looking at the study, and the reasons which are behind these results, tells us a story that has become so familiar to us in recent years. PISA sets out that the most resilient education systems in the world did the most to protect young people’s learning from disruption. Of note, many of these are situated in Asia and South America, which is worthy of careful investigation from Holyrood’s Education Committee. The OECD state the resilient system reacted in terms of minimising the amount of time schools were closed (though these decisions obviously had rightly more important public health considerations), but also in investment and prioritisation in digital learning, and well-being, since the period.

I am not sure we can still be talking about COVID’s impact on education as a ‘shock event’, as the OECD describe. To do so would be to pretend we’ve had anything like the policy responses needed in its wake for education recovery. If it was a ‘shock’ rather than disruption accelerating downward trends, we would be experiencing some form of ‘recovery’ in statistics. We are not experiencing that recovery, because we have not invested in that recovery. To respond and say, as we have become so accustomed to in education, ‘this is due to the pandemic’ is to disregard its inevitable lasting effect, as if somehow it is just going to vanish. The ‘new normal’ is here, and its impact on life chances will be severe. We have done next to nothing to support our brilliant teachers and young people.