Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I apologise for my voice, which I hope will last for six minutes.

Scotland has a fine history of achievement in education, starting with the establishment of church schools in the middle ages and of five universities by 1600—compared with only two south of the border. In 1696, Scotland passed the world’s first national education act, which provided for a school in every parish and a fixed salary for the teacher, with financial arrangements through a property tax to pay for it. The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 took control of the education system from the churches and handed it to local authorities. That was followed by the establishment of a single external examination system for Scotland in 1888. Scotland was then at the forefront of innovation in education.

More than a century later, international comparisons were introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development through the programme for international student assessment in the three areas of reading, mathematics and science. In 2012, 65 countries took part in the international comparison, and the Scottish results highlighted that levels of academic achievement here are above international averages in science and reading and close to the average in maths.

In science, Scotland has been above the OECD average in each PISA round since 2006. In reading, Scotland’s performance in 2012 was above the OECD average, as it was in 2009, after falling under the Labour-Lib Dem Executive between 2003 and 2006. Scotland’s relative position compared with that of OECD countries and the rest of the UK has improved since 2009, with a greater number of countries performing significantly less well than Scotland and fewer countries whose performance is similar to that of Scotland. In maths, the OECD found that Scotland’s performance was similar to the average for all countries, and there was clear evidence that the decline in Scotland’s performance between 2003 and 2006 had not continued. Again, Scotland’s position in 2012 improved, with fewer countries outperforming Scotland and greater numbers performing significantly below Scotland. That was the position in 2012, and we await the 2015 PISA scores, which are due out later this year.

The report “Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective”, which was published in December 2015, gives us an indication of progress. It states in its overview:

“Learners are enthusiastic and motivated, teachers are engaged and professional, and system leaders are highly committed. As many as 9 in 10 inspections report improvement in confidence, engagement, staying on in school and national qualifications over the recent past, broadly coincident with the implementation of CfE in schools.”

The report highlighted that there was much “to be positive about”, that there was a high level of social inclusion and that a large majority—nine out of 10—of students feel positive about their school and teachers.

Part of the reason why students feel positive about their school might be that the number of pupils who were reported as being in schools of good or satisfactory condition increased from 61 per cent in April 2007, just prior to the first SNP Government taking office, to 85 per cent in April 2015. The reason might also be that the latest national performance report shows that 90 per cent of schools were graded satisfactory or better, including 69 per cent that were graded as good, very good or excellent. As a result, students across Scotland achieved a record 156,000 higher passes in 2015, with the number of advanced higher passes increasing by 4 per cent to record levels.

Although there has been progress since 2007, that does not mean that there are no challenges facing Scottish education. Last autumn, at the Wester Hailes education centre in my constituency, the First Minister outlined her twin priorities of improving attainment for all children and tackling the attainment gap between children in deprived areas and those in better-off areas. The £100 million attainment Scotland fund to improve literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing for primary school pupils was extended to a further 57 schools, including three in my constituency, taking the total number of primary schools that are benefiting from the fund to more than 300.

The December 2015 OECD report states:

“Scotland has been among the OECD countries with the most equal scores of mathematics achievements among 15-year-olds and the spread by socio-economic background in Scotland is narrower than across the OECD as a whole. A third of disadvantaged students were identified as ‘resilient’ in 2012, meaning those from the bottom quarter in status terms who perform in the top quarter of international performance. This is higher than the OECD average of 25%.”

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said that the report

“confirms previous data that indicates that Scottish schools and levels of pupil attainment compare well both internationally and with other countries within the UK”

and that it

“paints a largely positive picture of Scottish education”.