Hansard

I have to admit to being somewhat bemused by the Tories’ motion. At the weekend, they were briefing the press that they would bring the issue of the 2021 exam diet to the chamber for debate this afternoon. That might have been pre-emptive, given that the Priestley review is not yet complete, but it is certainly a topic of substance and one that is genuinely focused on an important issue in our education system this year.

The motion that Jamie Greene lodged instead is not really about Scottish education. It is about independence—the one issue that the Tories claim everyone is sick of talking about, but which they cannot help themselves from bringing up at every opportunity. I think that they are a bit obsessed. However, I am happy to take the motion at face value and explain to our Conservative colleagues why the goal of independence is not mutually exclusive with closing the attainment gap and why their actions simultaneously grow support for independence and make the attainment gap worse.

Before moving on to the wider issue of the UK Conservative Government driving up child poverty and inequality, I want to pick up on the cabinet secretary’s argument, which is contained in his amendment, regarding the Brexit process and the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill, because it is relevant to Scottish education.

Clauses 22 through 27 of the bill cover recognition of professional qualifications such as teaching qualifications. In 2017, the cabinet secretary seemed to be toying with the idea of allowing Teach First and similar so-called fast-track teaching programmes to begin in Scotland, to address the teacher shortage. A number of us—inside Parliament and outside it—made it clear that that would not be acceptable, and with such powers being entirely devolved, the Scottish Government’s decision not to proceed with Teach First was the end of the matter.

However, Teach First is permitted in England, of course, and with the passage of the bill, it could be imposed on Scotland as well. The Tory power grab directly threatens the high professional standards of Scotland’s teaching profession, which that profession has fought hard to maintain.

I turn to the attainment gap. The Conservatives need to accept that that gap is not created in classrooms, as the cabinet secretary and Iain Gray have already said, but is the result of existing inequalities in our society. The Scottish Government may not be bold enough to take the action that is available to it to close the gap, but it is not causing it.

As every child poverty campaigner, every children’s rights organisation and every food bank provider in this country will tell us, it is decisions that are made by the UK Government—a Conservative Government—that are making inequality worse and pushing more families into poverty.

The changes to the welfare system that were introduced by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have driven more families into crisis. The process to claim universal credit was made convoluted and arbitrary, with the imposition of cruel sanctions for even the slightest misstep by people who are just struggling to get by.

Every member of this Parliament knows that food bank use in our communities exploded after the introduction of universal credit. Every one of us will have stories of parents—often single parents—being sanctioned by the Department for Work and Pensions. What impact do the Conservatives think hunger has on a child’s ability to learn?

If the motion had been lodged by the Labour Party, I would still have opposed it, but I would at least have believed it to be a sincere motion for a sincere debate. I cannot believe that there is any sincerity from the Conservatives here today.

The indisputable reality is that Conservative policies and Conservative actions in government make the attainment gap worse. They push more children into poverty and more families into crisis. Their actions and their contempt for the most vulnerable people in our society are among the reasons why the Scottish Greens believe in independence. With full powers over social security sitting with this Parliament, we could tackle the causes of the attainment gap and not just its symptoms once they reach the classroom.

Of course, it goes beyond social security. Some 72 per cent of children who are living in poverty in the UK are in households where at least one parent works. The reason for that is very simple: the Conservatives have kept the minimum wage below the level that is needed to live above the poverty line.

With independence, we can—and I believe that we will—choose differently. With independence, we can set a real living wage, ensure that proper employment protections are in place and restore the role of trade unions in our society. We can eliminate in-work poverty; we in the Greens certainly do not believe that it will be eliminated within the UK. That is how we can tackle the socioeconomic inequalities that cause the attainment gap in our schools.

To be clear, we believe that far, far more can and should be done now with the powers that are currently available to the Scottish Government. The Greens have long proposed universal free school meals, including a breakfast offer, and it looks as if we are approaching a consensus on that, which is really welcome.

We can also reduce unnecessary costs to families, particularly for required items such as uniforms. Some schools, especially in more affluent areas, require completely unnecessary and expensive items, such as blazers with braiding and logos that are often available from only one retailer, which puts huge pressure on family budgets, even after the uniform grant.

We can restore the hundreds of lost additional support needs posts—both teachers and support staff—because we know the link between additional needs and socioeconomic background, and we can expand the healthier, wealthier children scheme in Glasgow by ensuring that every school has associated income advisers.

Those proposals were all made in the “Level the Playing Field” paper that the Greens published in 2018, alongside others that have already been achieved, such as restoring the bursary for educational psychology. They are actions that the Scottish Government could take today. Unless it does so, it cannot credibly claim to be doing all that it can for Scotland’s children.

The Greens are committed to closing the attainment gap, eliminating child poverty and achieving a more just and equal society. It is for exactly those reasons that we are also committed to the cause of Scottish independence. We will not take any lessons from a Conservative Party that, with deliberate malice, inflicted further suffering on the most vulnerable children in our society, so we will certainly oppose the motion.