Education system is performing well
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a significant amount of debate within the Scottish Parliament and the media about performance in Scottish education.
This is a debate that matters to us all.
For me it matters as a parent. All parents want their children to benefit from a good education.
It matters to me as a member of the Scottish Parliament. I want the children of my constituents to have access to a good education.
And it matters to me as education secretary. I want every child to be able to obtain a world class education in their local school.
That must be the promise of our schools and that is what I am determined to deliver.
The narrative that has been set out by my political opponents is that Scottish education is not performing well.
I want to set out here why that argument does a disservice to our schools and their teachers and pupils.
For our youngest pupils, their performance in reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy is improving across almost every stage.
The performance of pupils from the most deprived backgrounds has improved at all stages in numeracy and for literacy at P1, P4 and P7.
In the recent international statistics on reading performance, there was a significant rise in performance by Scottish pupils and there are now only five countries in that survey who have a better performance than Scotland.
The percentage of students achieving a level five qualification such as a national five has increased from 71 per cent when the
SNP came to office to just over 85 per cent now.
When the SNP Government came to power in 2007, only 41.6 per cent of pupils obtained one Higher or better.
Last year, the proportion of young people who achieved at least one Higher or better was 60.5 per cent.
Today, 28.7per cent of pupils are achieving at least five Higher passes, which is up from just 20 per cent in 2009.
The number of young people who are achieving skills-based qualifications has increased from 47,747 in 2014 to over 64,000 in 2019.
And last week, statistics were published showing that 95 per cent of pupils left school and went into work, training or further and higher education.
That is at a record level and is surely what we want for our young people.
I am determined Scottish education should reach the highest standards. That is why I appointed International Council of Education advisers to provide challenge to our work.
On their last visit to Scotland, these advisers concluded we were on the correct track. One of the advisers, Professor Alma Harris stated :“The Scottish system is doing everything that we would expect a high performing system to do. It has all the right components; it’s investing in the right places.
“What we are seeing is incremental growth. And, as a council, we’re very confident that the incremental growth bodes well for the future.”
My political opponents have no right to talk down the achievements of our young people and I have no intention of allowing them to do so.