Hansard

Daniel Johnson is absolutely correct. One of the things that we must do is stop looking at the short term. We must look beyond that, look at the possibilities—I will probably come on to that issue later—and ensure that there is a framework to support those possibilities.

Technology moves quickly, but Governments all too often have a reputation for moving painfully slowly. The belief that it is enough for this or any Government to act in response to changing technology is the surest way to allow other countries to leave Scotland behind. If we are to capitalise on technological revolutions, we must plan for the long term and the big picture, as I was discussing with Daniel Johnson. To use a construction analogy, the first role of Government should be site clearance and preparation, not architecture.

Education lies at the heart of the issue for me, which is why it features prominently in our amendment. I was glad to see education feature in the Labour amendment, which we will support later. Education is what shapes tomorrow’s workforce. It is through education that we can offer everyone an opportunity, and education sets the path of an individual’s life.

Education is also one of the many areas in which the Scottish Government consistently fails to deliver. That has been discussed often in the chamber recently. When Nicola Sturgeon was First Minister, she said that she should be “judged” on her record on education. Although the immediate focus might be on WhatsApp retention policies, the record of her Government and her successor on education is no less disingenuous.

Although Scotland’s return to the programme for international student assessment and other educational rankings is a welcome development, it only serves to demonstrate just how much of a hill we now have to climb. Before any SNP MSPs leap to their feet to insist that our declining performance is not unique and remind us once again that Covid is responsible for every bad outcome, except the situations in which it is the UK Government’s fault, it is important to point out that Scotland’s score in maths has declined by more than 20 points since 2015. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development director of education and skills is on record as saying that

“long-term issues in education systems are also to blame for the drop in performance. It is not just about Covid.”

He cited declining parental engagement, worsening teacher-student relationships, difficulties in recruiting teachers and the negative impact of the use of smartphones for leisure purposes as other key factors to consider. It is also worth noting that some countries improved their PISA scores, so a pandemic decline was not inevitable.

The reality, whether the SNP likes it or not, is that the Scottish Government’s approach to education simply is not working. We should be encouraging Scottish pupils to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in further and higher education, but we are seeing cuts to the Scottish Funding Council and a cap on Scottish student numbers, leaving the next generation of home-grown talent at the back of the queue for places. That assumes that we have pupils leaving school not only with the basic skills that are required to study STEM subjects but with the inspiration to do so. If pupils are not coming out of school having had the chance to learn to code, to visit engineering businesses or to hear from scientific leaders about what the future holds, why would we expect them to want to make a career for themselves in technology?

I feel as though I have barely scratched the surface of my thoughts on the subject. There is a whole separate debate to be had on the potential of new technologies in the national health service and the desperate need to modernise the technology and information technology systems of the health service.

Similarly, we must spend more time talking about the digital infrastructure that will be the backbone of our future economy, from 5G to fibre broadband to grid infrastructure for data centres. I hope that colleagues across the chamber will touch on at least some of those points and agree that, although we have the potential to be a leading technology nation, we can do that only if we start from the position of accepting our current weaknesses and start thinking for the long term.

I was interested to hear the minister talk about our space technology. As I have a little bit of time left, I want to pick up on that. The other day, I watched a programme in which the point was made that, when we human beings are long gone, the only things that will be left will be AI and the 1970s technology that has now left the solar system, which may live for billions of years beyond our short lives. I think that AI has huge potential. Yes, I am a nerd when it comes to that kind of stuff.

In closing, I return to another of Arthur C Clarke’s three laws:

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

I move amendment S6M-11958.1, to leave out from “, and recognises” to end and insert:

“; notes that the recent Scottish Budget for 2024-25 will prevent Scotland’s technology sector from reaching its full potential by cutting enterprise funding, stymying economic growth, and placing a higher tax burden on Scotland, compared to the rest of the UK; further notes that recent cuts to the Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish National Investment Bank will restrict research and development opportunities in the software, medical and green technology sectors; acknowledges that the recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results will impact the technology sector with Scotland continuing to perform poorly in maths and science; believes that the poverty-related attainment gap will prevent future generations from entering the technology sector; calls on the Scottish Government to promote STEM subjects in schools, and to encourage more people to pursue technology as a career through higher education or apprenticeships, and urges the Scottish Government to work more constructively with the technology sector to grow the economy so that Scotland can continue to become a centre of world-leading technology, and provide more well-paid and highly-skilled jobs.”