Hansard

We are debating education on the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, after 12 years of Scottish National Party Government and four years on from the First Minister’s speech saying that education policy is number 1. Why do teachers, parents and young people see little evidence that education is the Government’s main reason for being in office? The perpetual siren of independence has not been switched off and now, because—irony of ironies—school pupils went on strike, we are in the midst of a climate change crisis. If the Government wants to demonstrate that what happens in schools, college workshops and university lecture halls really is its main priority, it should start by leading an annual debate on Scottish education here, in the nation’s Parliament, which is the voice of the Scottish people.

Parliament has listened to 23 education statements since 2016, but we have had no substantial debate on Scottish education. The Government has had debates on mainstreaming and on the growing of long grass, which is better known by some as educational governance. Once a year, the education secretary should set out the Government’s educational approach and future plans and, crucially, the funding to make those happen.

I do not argue that only money matters in schools, but, as all members know, an ability to deliver for young people and their future depends on adequate resources in every classroom and lecture hall across Scotland. The Government’s school spending direction is clear. The introduction of the attainment fund circumvents school spending decisions by local government. In effect, the Government is saying that it does not trust councils to tackle attainment, otherwise why have the attainment fund? There is now direct funding from central Government based on mechanisms that we know do not reflect poverty and deprivation in many parts of Scotland. Far from there being a historic concordat with Scotland’s councils, local government now believes that there is a we-know-best approach in Edinburgh.

To know best is, of course, to have the evidence. The Government wants to attack the educational attainment gap and to close it, which is an admirable objective. What evidence on literacy and numeracy did the First Minister cite in her Wester Hailes education speech to justify those new funding routes and the reintroduction of Michael Forsyth’s school testing programme? She cited at some length the Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy, but what did the Government then do? It abolished that survey, which many found to be somewhat extraordinary.

The Government now concedes that there will be a five-year data gap before comparable evidence on what is happening in Scottish education is available. How we can say that we want to close a gap that we cannot measure with data that we do not have is somewhat beyond me. Some cynics believe that having no comparable education data until after the Scottish elections suits Government rather well, but I am no cynic. Holyrood’s Education and Skills Committee recommends, on a cross-party basis, the reintroduction of an expanded Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy. Perhaps the Government will listen to that sensible suggestion.

The jury is out on the attainment fund, given that 43,193 primary school pupils are today being taught in classes of 31 or more, which is 12,000 more children than in 2012. If we want to know about the reality of ever-larger class sizes, we need only ask any primary teacher. The SNP used to have a commitment to reduce primary school class sizes, and it was absolutely right about that, so it is unfortunate that that sensible approach has been abandoned.

The jury is also out on the attainment fund, given that there are 1,000 fewer English and mathematics teachers in Scotland’s schools than there were in 2008 and 400 fewer specialist additional support needs teachers than there were four years ago, and given that, for the first time that I can remember, Shetland cannot recruit a primary school teacher. Every part of Scotland faces similar financial pressures.

The Government’s other main financial initiative is the pupil equity fund, but 40 per cent was unspent in the previous financial year and 1,000 teachers are now on one-year contracts using the pupil equity fund. There is no money for school curriculum specialists, community and youth work staff and the administrative staff who used to do their level best to reduce the bureaucracy that teachers still face. How is that approach, which has been forced on schools and councils by central Government, a long-term and sustained commitment to education? How is it a partnership with all those who have responsibility for improving standards and giving young people the best chance for their future?

I will continue to argue for curriculum for excellence. It is the right approach and a long-term change in how Scotland’s schools operate. However, change is needed in defining what parents and pupils expect from curriculum for excellence. On that, this Government, which has been in power for 12 years, has not succeeded. Why else would the general secretary of Scotland’s biggest teaching union tell members of this Parliament that the senior phase in our schools does not have clarity of purpose?

No wonder parents question why policy is to restrict the educational choice of their daughters and sons. Why does East Renfrewshire Council, as it explained to members this morning, deliver eight subject choices, which it thinks is in the best interests of its pupils, when that does not happen elsewhere?

Parents wonder why their young people are being taught to different exams, through the increasingly prevalent practice of teaching highers and advanced highers in one classroom.

Parents wonder why the number of pupils who are sitting higher computing science in 2018 is lower than it was in the previous year, when the economic needs of the country in that regard are so manifest.

Parents wonder why the number of young people who take music, art and a modern language all the way through school is falling. In a world in which we are about to be plucked out of the European Union and will need more of our people to speak a foreign language, as negotiations overseas affect more parts and industries of Scotland than ever before, is it not right that modern language teaching should be going forwards, not backwards?

Most parents are none the wiser as to why their five-year-old boys and girls are being tested in primary 1. Why are P1s being tested? Because the Government has changed its tune on reintroducing school testing, having been resolutely opposed to testing before 2016. No parents were asked about P1 testing. Indeed, no one was asked about the testing regime—it was imposed by central Government.

Working mums and dads know how important childcare from 8 am to 6 pm is. The Government is rightly investing in early learning expansion, but investment simply must go hand in hand with wraparound care. As a mum put it to me last week, she would rather keep the current hours at nursery school and her pre and post-work childcare in the private sector than take advantage of expanded childcare at school that does not cover her working day. The policy needs to be joined up. Private sector childcare services are closing across Scotland. We need the sector to flourish, not collapse.

All those questions are reasons why the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is much cited by Government, called for a mid-term review of curriculum for excellence. It did not suggest that curriculum for excellence be ripped up or changed for the sake of change; it called for a review to address what is working and what is not working—a hard-nosed educational assessment of where Scottish education is.

The Parliament endorsed that sensible approach, and I hope that the Government will today set out a plan to make it happen. It would be welcome if the Government started to accept and implement the Parliament’s view when a democratic verdict has been reached.

The former United States President, Woodrow Wilson, once observed that for a legislature, vigilant oversight is just as important as legislation. Although a legislative sword of Damocles still hangs over local councils, I do not think that this Government is going to take an education bill through this parliamentary session. Oversight of Government policy is therefore about what ministers do and say, and—crucially—about what they spend.

I ask the Parliament to approve of a Government that wants to make education its single most important purpose, with such a purpose going hand in hand with the resources—the money in schools, colleges and universities—to make it a reality. The Government’s facts do not support that position.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that there is no more important investment than in the education of Scotland’s young people; recalls that the First Minister said that education would be her administration’s number one priority, but believes that this has not been reflected in its focus, policies, staff conditions, recruitment and retention, or the means of measurement of Scottish education.