Meeting of the Parliament 13 December 2023
No, I simply cannot accept that, because we are measuring maths, science and reading. We can measure the trends over a very long time and there are, in fact, extremely worrying trends that we all have a duty to address.
Let us be absolutely clear that this is not the fault of our young people, who, like young people everywhere, have had to deal with unprecedented challenges in the past few years. Nor is it a failure of our teachers and their staff, who continue to do absolutely everything to deliver in a context that is far from ideal.
As The Courier put it,
“The report is ... a damning indictment of the failure of successive education secretaries to get to grips with their most important task—ensuring every Scottish child gets the best possible education”.
They are education secretaries including John Swinney—who apparently dare not even come to the chamber today—and Fiona Hyslop, Angela Constance and Shirley-Anne Somerville, who succeeded him. He told Parliament—without evidence—in 2021, that he had “cautious optimism” that standards were improving, shortly before he abandoned an education bill. The situation culminates most egregiously in the Scottish Government’s press release last week in response to the PISA figures—which showed Scotland’s worst-ever performance in science, reading and maths—that
“Scottish education maintains international standing”.
I listened very carefully to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills’ statement yesterday. I was, in fact, encouraged by much of the tone and by the acknowledgement of previous failures. It sounded as though we finally had a Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills who would take responsibility. That is why I was rather surprised and disappointed by—and will not vote for—the amendment in her name. Rather than acknowledging and dealing with PISA, as she seemed ready to do yesterday, her amendment suggests that yesterday’s figures trump PISA—a stance that Professor Lindsay Paterson claims is
“either disingenuous or evidence of dismaying statistical ignorance.”
This starts with acknowledging the issues, with not seeking to slopey shoulder the blame, and with taking responsibility for the solutions. The solution is about addressing issues including the epidemic of violence, ill-discipline and poor behaviour that was also revealed by the PISA results, which show that Scotland has more frequently bullied students and that our young people are two times more likely than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average to witness a fight at school.
In that context, the “Behaviour in Scottish schools: research report 2023” last month was clear that perceived lack of consequences for pupils who frequently engage in disruptive behaviour leaves educators unsupported. By failing to teach those who are perpetrating such behaviour that life has consequences, and by suggesting that abuse and violence will not lead to sanctions, we fail them as much as we fail the victims, whether they are teachers who are going off sick or pupils who are absenting themselves from school after being disrespected or verbally or physically assaulted.
We need boundaries and genuine consequences for perpetrators. Perhaps, as some commentators suggest, there should be immediate removal of perpetrators from the classroom. There should be proper resource put towards educational psychologists and the like to work with perpetrators to see whether they can be returned and helped to learn, and to ensure that teachers can teach and other children can learn. There should not be an extraordinary policy such as that which Fife Council seems to have adopted just last month, part of which states that school bullies should not experience negative consequences or punishment due to their behaviour.
The situation means that we need to look again at what is happening with the curriculum for excellence and to address the question why—as the University of Stirling has found—since its introduction in 2013 there has been a decrease in the number of subjects that are being entered into and studied by fourth-year pupils. It also means that we must look at genuine vocational studies so that those whose skills and talents lie somewhere other than the academic route are properly catered for. None of that is news.
In 2021, Shirley-Anne Somerville said:
“10 years on from CfE being introduced, it is right and proper that we review how it is being implemented. We accept in full all 12 recommendations from the OECD.”
However, how many recommendations have been achieved remains somewhat questionable. Perhaps the cabinet secretary will assist with that later.