More exam failures

WHAT will it take to shake the SNP from its dogmatic conviction that their Curriculum for Excellence and its associated exam regime is fit for purpose?

We report today that businesses’ bosses are looking at making candidates sit their own internal assessments as the official system is too confusing and may not reflect pupils’ abilities.

The few international league tables the SNP has not withdrawn from paint a grim picture of Scottish schools slipping as pupils struggle with basic literacy and numeracy.

This is the horrendous legacy of flop education secretaries such as Angela Constance and Mike Russell and the smallminded ‘we’ll take no lessons’ belligerence of Nicola Sturgeon.

Education was supposed to be Miss Sturgeon’s priority (though she quickly told her febrile followers that ‘independence transcends everything’).

Incredibly, for he still seems like a new boy yet to get to grips with the job, John Swinney has been in charge of education since May 2016.

He has shown little appetite to drive through the enormous systemic changes our school and exam system urgently needs.

SNP indolence and intransigence is letting down teachers, letting down business and, most importantly, letting down a generation of young Scots.