SNP humiliated as MSPs force probe into falling school standards
THE SNP suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday as MSPs forced an inquiry into the country’s plummeting classroom standards.
Education Secretary John Swinney had vowed to publish an outline of the findings of a probe by officials into declining exam performance in senior years.
However, a majority of MSPs backed a Conservative motion calling for a far wider review of general education and the reasons for declining Higher exam pass rates.
The Tory motion, supported by 63 MSPs and opposed by 60, said there should be a full review of the senior phase of the curriculum and of ‘broad general education and how it articulates with the senior phase’.
The motion also demanded the Scottish Government accepts there are ‘key weaknesses in some key aspects of Scotland’s school education and the qualifications structure’.
Last year, Higher exam pass rates dropped from 76.8 per cent to 74.8 per cent.
Mr Swinney privately ordered officials to investigate the reasons for the decline, despite publicly putting the change down to ‘annual variance’.
Tory education spokesman Liz Smith demanded that the full findings into the reasons for the decline should be published. She said: ‘What I’m interested in is what the rea sons your staff discovered were the cause of the four-year decline in the Higher. I did not get told about what the specific problem actually was.
‘Is it not the case that this parliament would be better off if we could have an assessment of what the problem is, especially as it relates to the so-called gold standard of Scottish education, and what we’re going to do about it?’
Mr Swinney told her he would publish ‘an outline’ of his staff’s findings. He went on to broadly describe the findings but further details will be published in the future.
He said: ‘The conclusions of the analysis was the importance of ensuring we’re constantly supporting the understanding of standards, which is what the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is currently engaged in doing.
‘And secondly, that we’re taking steps to ensure that there is again the availability of support to enhance learning and teaching which, as Liz Smith will understand, is absolutely central to the education progress.
‘That’s the work that Education Scotland, the SQA, our regional improvement partners and local authorities are currently taking forward.’
Mr Swinney said the review was a ‘habitual exercise’ undertaken by the Scottish Government regularly to identify problems in the education system.
During a debate yesterday, he admitted subject choice had narrowed for many pupils in S4, S5 and S6 but insisted this was down to decisions by individual schools.
Labour MSP Jenny Marra claimed the reasons could be down to funding issues in some cases. Her party’s education spokesman, Iain Gray, branded Mr Swinney ‘pathetic’ for refusing to commit to a wider review of the curriculum.
‘Key weaknesses in education’