Meeting of the Parliament 17 January 2024
I am not sure that I understand the member’s point in relation to what happened during the pandemic. However, it is important that we look at a broad range of data sets. It is somewhat dispiriting that the Scottish Labour Party motion does not say anything positive about Scottish education. What does that say about the offer from Scottish Labour in relation to its vision for Scottish education? I would like to hear that.
The attainment gap in literacy in primary schools is at the lowest level on record, and we are also seeing the gap reduce in secondary schools. Given those results, I am dispirited that the motion does not mention that data.
I do not shy away from the areas where we face challenges. Indeed, during December, I spent a large amount of my time in the chamber discussing some of those challenges in detail. However, I question why the Labour Party would want to shy away from the genuine positives in our system. It is also strange that we do not hear mention from the Labour Party of last year’s examination results. In the summer of 2023, we had the highest number of passes at national 5 since the qualification was introduced in 2014, and a record number of vocational and technical qualifications were achieved. Advanced higher and higher passes are also above those that were seen before the pandemic.
The Government is doing all that we can within our limited powers—