Hansard

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Linda Fabiani) SNP

The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on improving literacy in Scottish education. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of...

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (John Swinney) SNP

The results of the latest Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy were published earlier today. The publication contains data on literacy performance in pri...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I will allow around 20 minutes for that. It would be helpful if members ...

Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Con

I am grateful for prior sight of the statement. Many parents across Scotland will see some of the statistics as nothing short of shameful, especially those ...

John Swinney SNP

My first point is that I have come to Parliament acknowledging that the statistics need to improve. That is an acknowledgment that those issues have to be ad...

Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. The cabinet secretary says that today’s statistics confirm the case for reform. What they con...

John Swinney SNP

When the SSLN information first pointed to a decline in performance in Scottish education, the Government acted immediately on the issues that it raised. Whe...

Jenny Gilruth (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP) SNP

I remind members that I am the parliamentary liaison officer to the cabinet secretary. I agree with the cabinet secretary that today’s results underline the...

John Swinney SNP

The Government is concluding its review of governance, and I will report to Parliament on that, as I promised to do. The entire education system has to focus...

Ross Thomson (North East Scotland) (Con) Con

It is disappointing that the cabinet secretary refuses to face head on the issues in our education system. Rather than tackle the core of the problem, such a...

John Swinney SNP

I am not sure how much attention Mr Thomson has been paying in the past few months, but if he had read the letter of guidance from the chief inspector of edu...

Ruth Maguire (Cunninghame South) (SNP) SNP

I welcome what the cabinet secretary has said on the wider programme of reforms. Will he expand on what impact he expects investment and support in the early...

John Swinney SNP

That is a critical part of the work that we take forward, because all the evidence says to us that the earlier we intervene to overcome the challenges that y...

Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Lab

The cabinet secretary quoted the figure of 88.7 per cent of school leavers from the most deprived communities entering positive destinations. Can he confirm ...

John Swinney SNP

Mr Johnson knows full well that the approved national statistics assessment of positive destinations includes that category; it is a measure of young people ...

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP) SNP

There appears to be a stubborn and persistent gender gap in literacy. What action is the Scottish Government taking to address it?

John Swinney SNP

The Government is focused on ensuring—this is one of the benefits of the flexibility that is offered through pupil equity funding—that in the classroom setti...

Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green) Green

As has been mentioned already, the core issue here is that there are simply far fewer staff in our schools than there were a decade ago. It will be cold comf...

John Swinney SNP

Mr Greer may know that at my appearance at the Public Petitions Committee just a week or so ago I made very clear my view that school librarians play a very ...

Liam McArthur (Orkney Islands) (LD) LD

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. The results on literacy and numeracy confirm that pupils and teachers are paying a heavy pri...

John Swinney SNP

I think that that should be obvious to Mr McArthur. The point that I make seriously to him is this: it is not the case that the guidance that has been formu...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

We have used up our time, but I can get the last four questions in if we have quick questions and answers, please.

Clare Haughey (Rutherglen) (SNP) SNP

Could the cabinet secretary outline examples of best practice, where local authorities and teachers are using attainment funding to improve literacy and nume...

John Swinney SNP

I suspect that I will not be able to give a brief answer to that, but I saw one example this morning in Craigroyston primary school. Pupil equity funding is ...

Alexander Stewart (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Con

The Scottish Government and First Minister have insisted that education is their main priority. However, the figures that were released today show that—

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

You must come to a question, please, Mr Stewart.

Alexander Stewart Con

The percentage of pupils in secondary 2 who are not meeting the required level in writing has more than doubled in the past four years, from 7 per cent in 20...

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

Mr Stewart, please.

Alexander Stewart Con

Can I ask the cabinet secretary—

The Deputy Presiding Officer SNP

Yes, you can.