Could Education Scotland do better?

SINCE the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published its most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tables, results for science show that Scottish pupils fall below the international average.

Reading and maths in Scotland has declined, too, according to that report and education has become a political hot potato.

This week an inspection of Argyll and Bute council education authority, by HM Inspector Alistair Brown and his team working for Education Scotland, was highly critical of the executives and management by elected officials.

Mr Brown’s report seems contradictory. On page four it states that young people’s attainment in national qualifications from S4 to S6 has declined in recent years. In the next paragraph the report states: ‘The number of young people securing a positive destination on leaving school has increased over the period 2011 to 2016.’

This Strategic Inspection of the Education Functions of Local Authorities, carried out last September, was the only report of its type carried out on any education authority in Scotland.

Checking on Education Scotland’s website revealed that no other authority had been subjected to this level of scrutiny.

The inspection was based on a Local Scrutiny Plan of seven pages published by Audit Scotland (AS). Argyll and Bute’s population is 95,000, Glasgow’s is six times higher yet the same AS report was just two pages longer and education is covered in one short paragraph.

It is hard to believe that Argyll and Bute is the worst education authority in Scotland but that seems to be the inference.