Neglecting education is a populist folly

We need leaders with an overriding obsession to improve the building block upon which everything else depends

Ahead of the 2001 election, Tony Blair famously declared that his government’s top priority was “education, education, education”, the Liberal Democrats said they would add a penny to income tax to boost education spending, and the Conservatives pledged to set up “free schools” without centralised, overly bureaucratic controls.

Once upon a time – before independence and immigration gained such prominence in our politics – the state of education was a major election issue. Two decades on and Scotland’s education system appears to be paying a heavy price for a lack of attention, with a slump down international league tables, growing concern about pupils’ violence, a persistent attainment gap between rich and poor, and high rates of absence.

According to a major new international study, that latter problem may be the most serious. A paper published in Lancet Public Health reported that researchers had found the health effects of not going to school were comparable with smoking and drinking every day, while 18 years of education had similar benefits to eating the right amount of vegetables.

The researchers suggested that the health of well-educated people benefited from their generally higher incomes and better access to healthcare – a factor that the NHS crisis is making all the more important – while they also tended to be better able to look after themselves and have a “larger set of social and psychological resources”.

When was the last time anyone heard a leading populist talk compellingly about education? On becoming First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon asked to be judged on education, but it soon faded from her agenda.

If Scotland is to prosper, it needs leaders who have an overriding obsession to improve the fundamental building block upon which everything else depends. Until then, the foundations of our economy and society will continue to crumble into sand, risking a spiral into a devastating, long-term decline.