27 Feb 2020
The SNP government has been told it’s run out of time to reverse falling standards in Scotland’s schools – after the education secretary said he needed longer to make improvements.
At First Minister’s Questions today, Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw challenged Nicola Sturgeon on declining exam pass rates.
It follows a late-night report released last week by John Swinney, which revealed concerns at the heart of government about the performance of pupils at all levels.
However, today Ms Sturgeon said she stood by Mr Swinney’s initial assessment that all was well with the education system, and that consistently falling pass rates still represented a “strong set of results”.
That’s despite his own report showing poorer showings in core subjects like English, Maths and History, and an admission that the attainment gap was not closing.
And when facing the media on the issue this week, the education secretary – whose SNP government has been in power for 13 years – said: “It takes time to improve an education system.”
Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said:
“The SNP government has been in sole charge of education for 13 years.
“But still Nicola Sturgeon wants even more time to fix the education system her SNP government has neglected.
“Generations of pupils have been failed, and teachers and parents have had enough of nationalist failure.
“Their time is up on education, and every other devolved area which they’ve made a mess of.”
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