Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 September 2020
I welcome the opportunity to discuss how we create a fairer society and tackle inequality—inequality that is particularly visible in education.
We know that decisions in an education system can reinforce inequality and deny opportunity but, where policy is rigorous, education can also be seen as an important means of creating greater fairness in society. That is why I was so angry about what the Scottish Government chose to do about the exam results. That was a clear example of choices being made that would disadvantage those who are already most disadvantaged. We need to understand that tackling inequality in education requires an understanding of economic and social inequality and the inequity of life chances more broadly in our communities, and how that feeds into formal education.
In response to a request from the young me for some frivolous spending money, my mother would say, “Every penny should be a prisoner since it came from the sweat of your father’s brow.” Although I have never lived by that approach myself, possibly because I have never had to work as hard as my father did, there is a truth there for the Government to reflect on in these terrible and frightening times. Every penny, every budget, every resource, every bit of intellectual time and energy needs to be focused on tackling this crisis and understanding how disproportionately it is now affecting those who are already the most disadvantaged.
The evidence of the unfolding disaster for all too many families is all too clear. In recent weeks, I have heard evidence from groups such as adult survivors of abuse, carers, unpaid young carers and disabled people, among others. They have all given powerful testimony about the toll of the current crisis on their wellbeing, their income and the support that they receive, and how that is compounding the challenges that are already at the core of their lives. It does those people a grave disservice to suggest that focusing on the constitution can address their needs now. We should not be overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, but we need and expect the Government’s total focus to be on those challenges. It is not good enough to point out what we cannot do when Government is resisting taking many of the actions that would make a difference.
In every aspect of our lives, there are examples of inequality, but today’s debate focuses on education. I repeat my strongly held view that the Scottish Government’s action in education is making things worse, whether it is around multilevel teaching, the reduction in subject choices, the reduction in support for young people with additional support needs, or the reduction of support staff in our schools. In this crisis, those problems are multiplied.
We are clear about the impact of the lack of access to digital support. We can only fear what the impact of lockdown was on young people for whom school has been a sanctuary. We see the way in which opportunities for some young people are enhanced and determined by what their families can make available to their own children; in their own way, trips, visits, access to books and extra tutoring can make up for the loss that all young people have experienced by being out of school. We can also see how excluded and disadvantaged those children are whose families cannot bring to bear those extra resources to close that gap.
In education, we need to harness the important work of groups such as Home-Start or the Volunteer Tutors Organisation, or many of the other groups that support vulnerable young people in our communities. At the same time, in my city, cuts are being made to the budgets of the very groups that work closely with individual families. Those choices, made by the Scottish Government, are having a direct impact on the opportunities of young people in our cities. Indeed, the great idea is for libraries to support all in accessing knowledge but, in our city, we are seeing the potential for libraries to be closed.