Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

Covid has revealed where education truly sits in the Government’s priority list, and it is not at the top. It is hard for the Government to call it its number 1 priority, or even to call it a priority at all. With every debate, every parliamentary statement and every passing day, it becomes clearer that the SNP and John Swinney are content to preside over an underperforming education system, and that they continue to refuse to listen to the will of the Parliament. Worse than that, they refuse to listen to our teachers who are working on the front line.

Far from equity and excellence, all we see is dither and delay, and a blame culture in which responsibility lies with everyone but the Scottish Government. As we saw yesterday, even the most basic questions seem to be difficult to answer. The never-ending U-turns are becoming more like a loop the loop, and I am not surprised that even the cabinet secretary is finding it hard to keep up with himself.

Iain Gray is right: we often get the right decisions, but they come far too late. Usually at this point in the debate, I would say that the Government is too busy focusing on a divisive independence referendum, but I am honestly not sure whether John Swinney is more preoccupied with burying the legal advice that the Parliament has been asking for.

Anyway, all that we can know for sure is that education has fallen even lower down the priority list over the past few months. The SNP has no new ideas of its own, no new thinking, no real commitment, and no willingness to engage with the Parliament, teachers or unions. It is all just talk. That is why I find it pretty galling to hear SNP back-bench MSPs suggest that, after 13 long years in government, it is a total and complete coincidence that increasing free school meals provision to all primary school pupils has come about just a matter of weeks after the Scottish Conservatives called for that change to be made.

What is even more ridiculous is that SNP MSPs seem to care about or to be interested only in what is happening in England when there is an opportunity for political point scoring. If we are going to talk about politicking, and if we are going to suggest that people are being shameful, I say that that is shameful. Where is the SNP’s concern for the rest of the UK, as it seeks to tear our country apart?

As our motion suggests, let us bring forward the plans now—let us deliver the change, let us take the politics out of this issue, and let us get it done before the election. Let us make the change at the start of the next financial year. If we all agree that it is a good idea, why wait?

I will pick up on another point that was made by my colleague, Jamie Greene. I am unclear why the SNP Government, having accepted that it was a mistake to cut our teacher numbers to the bone, has been so sluggish about putting in place plans to deliver additional teachers. Where are the 2,000 additional full-time teachers whom we need to fill vacancies? The pressure and workload on teachers in our schools would be much less, and there would be much more resilience in the system, if those teachers were on the front line, helping our young people. How can a Government that is serious about maximising opportunities for Scotland’s young people be so relaxed about such a significant failing?

Is the cabinet secretary happy that young people, particularly those who live in rural and remote communities, are getting a second-class education service simply because the teachers are not there to give them the teaching and support that they deserve? I am certainly not happy, and my constituents feel that the Government lacks understanding of what is needed to turn things around. There is certainly a lack of prioritisation when it comes to delivering more teachers.

Of course, the teachers who are there are working very hard, and I would never seek to do down our young people or our schools, but they should not have to pick up the slack as a result of national failings in policy and lack of resources.

It would be tempting to say that many of the changes have come about as a result of an urban and central-belt dominated mindset that is at the heart of the SNP, but the reality is that things are no better in our cities, and our young people are being let down the length and breadth of the country.

As a number of other members have done, I want to highlight briefly the many questions that have come up as a result of the Deputy First Minister’s statement yesterday. Surely, having had the advantage of significant practice when it comes to the announcement of U-turns and changes in policy, Mr Swinney would have had the chance to think through the answers to some of the obvious questions that were asked. It does not inspire confidence to hear deflection of legitimate questions, nor to hear that it will be left to schools and universities to sort out the tricky issues.

I would sit down now to give the cabinet secretary a chance to give a bit more clarity, but I know from experience that we will just get more of the same. I am starting to suspect that the new strategy is just to give as little information as possible, so that people have less chance later to point out that things have gone wrong.

When it comes to education, it is clear that the SNP Government will do nothing proactively, which is why I urge colleagues across the chamber to continue to hold it to account this evening, and to ensure that it listens to the Parliament and the people of Scotland.