A major literacy survey has found that the quality of writing by pupils in Scotland is slumping as they get older.

The results have led education secretary John Swinney to insist the education reform in the country is now “imperative”.

The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) shows that fewer than half of pupils (49 per cent) in the second year of secondary school are performing well or better in writing - down 15 percentage points since 2012 (64 per cent).

In the last year of primary school there has also been a decline, from 72 per cent in 2012 to 65 per cent in 2016, although the Primary 4 performance has remained relatively stable (62 per cent, down from 64 per cent in 2012).

‘Simply not good enough’

The trends are less discouraging for reading, where performance has remained similar to the last results in 2014; there was even a slight increase in S2 pupils doing well or better (82 per cent, up from 80 per cent). Listening and talking has also remained at broadly similar levels.

But Mr Swinney said: “I want to see standards and attainment improving in Scottish education. A stable performance and drop in S2 writing is simply not good enough.”

These are the last ever SSLN results: last November, Tes Scotland revealed the survey was to be scrapped, a move that was attacked by experts who said it would be several years before new sources of data revealed trends in education performance.

The Scottish government was also accused of trying to bury poor results on numeracy - the SSLN assesses literacy and numeracy in alternate years - ahead of last May’s parliamentary elections.

Reforms ‘not an overnight solution’

Mr Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, said the government was “already taking action” to provide teachers and schools with the tools and resources to improve literacy through new literacy benchmarks and standardised national assessments which are being introduced after the summer holidays.

He added: “These reforms are not an overnight solution: it will take time before we see their full effect and we must stay the course. But if anyone looking at these literacy results thinks nothing more needs to change in Scottish education then they are mistaken. Further reform is now imperative.”

Mr Swinney identified four key areas for improvement: “We need to better understand the progress of individual pupils, be clear about the standards expected in our classrooms while stripping out bureaucracy to free teachers to teach, and ensure literacy skills are fully embedded across the curriculum.”

The government will also soon be revolving its response to a national review of education governance. Mr Swinney has already spoken of his desire to devolve more power from local authorities to schools.

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