Scotland’s first minister has today admitted that Scotland’s “poor” Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results are “not good enough” and the education system needs to be on “an improving trajectory”, not “a trajectory of decline”.
However, Humza Yousaf cautioned against dismissing “the entirety of Scottish education” based on one dataset as he came under fire from all sides of the chamber today over his party’s track record on education.
On Tuesday, the results of the latest Pisa tests were published.
The test scores - which measure 15-year-olds’ ability in maths, reading and science - showed a drop in Scotland’s scores across the board since 2018, with a particularly steep fall in students’ performance in maths.
Scotland’s maths score was down 18 points on 2018; according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 20 points is the equivalent of a year of learning.
At First Minster’s Questions this afternoon, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Scotland now ranked “below Latvia for science; behind Estonia in reading; behind Lithuania in maths”.
He called for Curriculum for Excellence - which he branded “the SNP’s curriculum”, although its origins predate the SNP coming to power in 2007 - to be scrapped; accused the Scottish government of failing a generation of young Scots; and said the SNP’s record on schools was “a national disgrace”.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, meanwhile, reeled off a “litany” of broken SNP promises on education - from the pledge to close the attainment gap, to free meals for primary pupils, a device for every child and class sizes of 18.
He went on to accuse the SNP of “destroying our once world-leading education system” and called on Mr Yousaf to apologise.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the SNP was “squandering the once-proud global advantage that Scotland held in education”.
‘Poor’ Pisa results
Mr Yousaf admitted the latest Pisa scores were “a poor set of results”, “not good enough” and said he took them “very seriously”.
He said education secretary Jenny Gilruth would set out the “practical action” the government planned to take to improve literacy and numeracy in a statement to the Scottish Parliament next week.
However, he defended the Scottish government’s record on education.
Mr Yousaf said that Pisa was “one set of results”. He pointed to “record numbers” of young people in “positive destinations” after leaving school and said there had been record pass rates for national qualifications this year.
Narrowing gap at primary
He added that other datasets showed a narrowing of the gap in primary literacy and numeracy and that Scotland invested more in education than the other UK nations.
Mr Yousaf also responded angrily to the language and “hyperbole” used by Mr Sarwar, in particular.
He said: “Anas Sarwar and Douglas Ross and any other member of this chamber has the right, of course, to question those challenging, difficult and poor Pisa results. But please let’s not, from one set of data, suddenly dismiss the entirety of Scottish education.”
Mr Yousaf said to do so would be “unfair” to hardworking teachers and students.
But Mr Sarwar said: “Our pupils and teachers are doing a great job - they are just being failed by this pathetic SNP government. That’s the problem.”
