Meeting of the Parliament 15 May 2019
I am sorry—could you please be quiet, Ms Gilruth? I am not taking interjections from you.
We have heard the First Minister refuse to answer questions on subject choice from across the benches and instead point to statistics on higher attainment. Of course, we welcome improvements in attainment, but to say that reduced choice, fewer teachers, the death of some subjects at school and a fall against international standards is somehow okay because current pupils are getting more highers is to completely miss the point.
If, as the First Minister likes to say, the evidence from our education system does not bear out the analysis that we have brought to the chamber, why are teachers, classroom assistants, parents and education experts from far and wide saying that there is a problem with our current education system? I am not an educationist, a professor, a teacher or, indeed, an ex-teacher, but when Marjorie Kerr, the president of the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers, says that S1 to S3 was heavily planned for in the new curriculum but S4 to S6 were a rushed afterthought, we must accept that we need change.
Scotland’s education system is no longer world class. We are letting Scottish children down. We need to come together, face facts and get on with fixing the problems.
16:32