Nicola Sturgeon’s famous - critics might say notorious - 2015 statement on her ambition to eliminate the attainment gap has attained almost mythic status.
Even casual observers of Scottish education are aware of it, and it now fuels almost every political debate about education. Yet this landmark statement is hard to find, and any reference to it tends to rely on paraphrasing from memory rather than citing the exact words that the first minister used at the time.
Partly that’s because, in retrospect, it looks like a promise that was made one time only: ever since, government ministers have frequently made references to their determination to close what they call the “poverty-related attainment gap”, without going as far as to say they will eliminate it entirely, as Sturgeon did in August 2015.
University of Stirling policy expert Professor Paul Cairney, whom I spoke to this week, believes that statement was not meant to happen quite as it did. He reckons that Sturgeon, a politician who is typically careful and measured in what she says, did something in the moment that was unusual for her. This was, of course, less than a year after the independence referendum and the SNP was still riding a huge wave of new support.
Cairney feels that Sturgeon made an uncharacteristically bold promise, which was pretty much impossible to keep, and that her government has been rowing back on it ever since.
That’s not to say that the attainment gap isn’t a priority for the government - it demonstrably is, whatever you think of the record of the Scottish Attainment Challenge - but now, you will only hear ministers talking of “closing” the attainment gap at some indeterminate point in the future; of making “significant” progress towards doing that, rather than consigning the attainment gap to history.
That the exact wording of Sturgeon’s 2015 statement has almost disappeared from view is evident from Cairney having to delve into a local news website in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh - where Sturgeon made her clarion call on the attainment gap - to find and cite it.
Here is the key section: “My aim - to put it bluntly - is to close the attainment gap completely. It will not be done overnight; I accept that. But it must be done. After all, its existence is more than just an economic and social challenge for us all. It is a moral challenge. Indeed, I would argue that it goes to the very heart of who we are and how we see ourselves as a nation.”
Now, nearly seven years later, with the SNP in power for 15 years - and looking like they will be the biggest party in Scotland for the 11th election in a row, after yesterday’s local elections - the tone when it comes to education policy is far more muted. Two key recent education policy developments - on reducing teachers’ class-contact time and “lead teachers” - only emerged after Tes Scotland noticed them buried in, respectively, the SNP 2021 Scottish Parliament election manifesto and in EIS teaching union conference papers.
The seismic shock to the education system that was Covid led to many predictions in 2020 that it would catalyse radical education reform. Two years on, that seems off the mark, although there are some hopes that the recent Muir report will mark the dawn of a new era.
There is a feeling of stasis and lethargy around the Scottish government’s stewardship of education, which, while fairly typical of any administration that has been around for so long, does not bode well for the myriad challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.
Nicola Sturgeon’s 2015 statement was a misstep in its execution, but not in the sense of ambition and possibility that fuelled it. We could do with ministers rediscovering some of that energy and boldness when it comes to education.
Henry Hepburn is Scotland editor at Tes. He tweets @Henry_Hepburn
