School standards slide... yet again
Now Scots pupils are trailing peers in reading skills
SCOTS pupils’ literacy skills have slipped – dealing a ‘stinging blow’ to the education system.
Children north of the Border are no longer ahead of their peers when it comes to reading, a survey found.
Scots students are now lagging behind those in Northern Ireland and joint second alongside pupils in England.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Jamie Greene said the findings were ‘a stinging blow to the SNP’, adding: ‘The SNP claims education is its number one priority but this survey shows that, yet again, standards are falling.’
The report comes as a major review of the SNP’s controversial Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is launched.
Experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will carry out the yearto long audit, Education Secretary John Swinney said yesterday.
It follows concerns about CfE – including a warning from Keir Bloomer, who helped devise the curriculum, that it is ‘limiting the prospects’ of children.
Passes in some Higher subjects have slumped by as much as 10 per cent, figures showed this month, while Scotland has plunged down global education rankings. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report for 2018 showed record low results for Scots pupils in science and maths.
Ministers had opposed the OECD review but MSPs voted call for a fuller probe into the ‘key weaknesses’ in education.
Mr Swinney insisted CfE is delivering ‘strong results’ and is the ‘right approach’.
He said: ‘I am not claiming everything is wonderful in eduKeith cation and nothing may need to change. We have made a series of reforms – reforms evidence is telling us are starting to work.’
Mr Swinney said the audit would not be a ‘review of the whole of Scottish education’ and would not stop plans to ‘deepen and embed’ progress CfE has made. He added: ‘I want to take the opportunity of the review to discuss and debate what we want CfE to look like over the next ten years.’
The study of pupils’ reading comprehension and habits, by assessment provider Renaissance UK, involved more than 1.1million pupils in the UK and Ireland – including 46,239 Scots children. The research also found those aged 13 to 16 regularly read books ‘at least three years below’ their age group.
Dundee University’s Professor Topping, who analysed the data for the report, What Kids Are Reading, said: ‘Reading for pleasure is a vital component to literacy success.
‘But it is important to encourage pupils to read more often and pick books of appropriate reading difficulty for their age.’
The Scottish Government said: ‘PISA 2018 shows that the reading performance of Scotland’s 15-year-olds is above the OECD average.
‘Our attainment data shows 88 per cent of S3 pupils achieved CfE third level in literacy or better in 2018-19, with 48 per cent attaining at CfE fourth level.’
‘Stinging blow for the SNP’