Meeting of the Parliament 25 October 2018
Mr Greer is absolutely correct to say that the Green Party has taken a consistent position of opposition to the assessments, and I acknowledge that, as I have done on previous occasions.
Mr Greer then goes on to engage in the issues that I have brought up in a constructive way in talking about what might be the content of the review that we are undertaking. I am perfectly willing to embrace his points because they are reasonable points to add to the remit of the review so that we can take a considered view of the questions. As I acknowledged in my statement, the independent review could end up saying that P1 assessments should continue with certain changes. Equally, it could say that it does not matter what we do and P1 assessments should stop. I have accepted that that might well be the outcome of the review.
I am simply saying that, as part of the motion that it agreed to, Parliament asked me to reconsider the evidence. I am putting in place a mechanism to enable Parliament to do that in a way that means that we can have a considered discussion, bearing in mind the issues that Mr Greer has raised, which will help us to advance the educational debate on all these points. That will be to the benefit of Scottish education.