Education is a postcode lottery, admits SNP MP

‘A good school depends on where you are’

A NATIONALIST MP yesterday admitted Scottish state education is a postcode lottery.

John Nicolson, who is standing for reelection in East Dunbartonshire, said there were ‘good schools’ – but ‘it depends where you are in Scotland’.

The admission is an embarrassment for Nicola Sturgeon, who has made the reform of state schools her overriding priority.

It came on the day the First Minister was attacked over the SNP’s ‘ten-year record of failure’ on education at Holyrood.

Mr Nicolson, who is facing a challenge from former Lib Dem minister Jo Swinson, made the admission in an interview with Andrew Neil on the BBC’s Daily Politics.

Mr Neil pointed out Scottish schools had tumbled down international league tables, while teacher numbers had fallen and a primary class size target had been missed.

Mr Nicolson said: ‘It depends where you are in Scotland. In my own area of East Dunbartonshire, for instance, we have very good schooling. I go to schools all the time and they’re very impressive.

‘I accept there are areas of the country where clearly schools have to be better. We know that. We have a long and honourable tradition in Scotland of caring about education. But I think, to be fair, we have to remember there have been huge cuts from UK central government to the Scottish budget and inevitably that filters down.’

The blundering performance came after Alex Salmond was questioned at the weekend about the SNP’s record on literacy, also by Mr Neil. Asked why one in five primary pupils leaves school functionally illiterate, Mr Salmond called it ‘just one statistic’.

Miss Sturgeon was grilled at First Minister’s Questions, with Ruth Davidson claiming thousands of children had been failed by the SNP.

The Scottish Tory leader claimed that, since the SNP came to power in May 2007, fewer teachers have been forced to tackle growing workloads – with 16 per cent of training places in certain subjects remaining unfilled. Miss Davidson

Aquoted the Sutton Trust, which earlier this year reported a ‘pronounced and sustained’ decline in pupil performance under the SNP.

She said: ‘It says that decline over the past decade, since the SNP came to power, is equivalent to an entire year of schooling.’

But Miss Sturgeon accused Miss Davidson of ‘a disservice to young people and teachers across the country’.

She added: ‘We now see record numbers of Higher and Advanced Higher passes in our schools and record numbers of positive destinations, which is more young people than ever before going into employment, further education or training. My intention is solidly to continue to make improvement.’

Regarding Mr Nicolson’s remarks, Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘This is an extraordinary admission from a senior SNP MP – but it will come as no surprise to many parents across the country. Where you live should not be the difference between a good or bad education.

‘But under the SNP’s decade of division, Scottish education standards have slipped to below average, while the gap between the richest and poorest in our schools has widened.’

‘Gap between rich and poor has widened’