SNP ‘set to skip school scrutiny for f ive years’
SNP plans to scrap an annual literacy and numeracy survey have sparked a row amid claims it could effectively end scrutiny of its education policy for five years.
The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) will be replaced after its last results are released in May 2017.
The SSLN has recently highlighted a slump in maths skills and a growing poverty-based attainment gap.
This year First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed education would be her government’s top priority and unveiled plans to close the gap.
But she has been rebuked over the timing of her plan to scrap the SSLN.
Keir Bloomer, chair of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s education committee, said: ‘It will be at least five years before trends will be apparent in the new information. Thus, there will be no evidence of this kind for the next few years to allow us to say whether the gap is closing.’
The SSLN was introduced in 2011, and is a sample survey that looks at pupil performance in P4, P7 and S2 in alternate years.
It will be replaced by the National Improvement Framework (NIF) with standardised tests for all pupils in literacy and numeracy, and ‘data collection’ from teachers. The new system will publish its first data next year for P1, P4, P7 and S3.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: ‘This is an extraordinary situation engineered by the SNP. It said it wanted maximum transparency when it comes to assessing school standards, yet it has taken Scotland out of key international measurement. Now it wants to abolish the national survey of pupil performance.
‘I am sure parents will draw only one conclusion – that this is being done to avoid further exposure of the SNP’s failures on schools.’
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said the decision was
‘Dismantling the goal posts’
‘disgraceful’, adding: ‘This survey has shown for years how badly the SNP is failing on education.
‘Rather than fix the problem ministers are scrapping it. It’s not so much moving the goal posts as dismantling them.’
Miss Sturgeon remains insistent that the NIF is ‘clearly better’. Writing on Twitter to respond to queries, she said: ‘Instead of a sample survey, there will be comprehensive pupil data next year.’
A Scottish Government spokesman added: ‘We have already made clear that the results from the 2016 survey would be the final set.
‘As part of the new National Improvement Framework, we introduced a new data collection of teachers’ professional judgments on progress in literacy and numeracy.
‘This data will highlight the attainment gap and where it occurs, allowing us to identify the necessary actions to help close it. From 2017/18 national standardised assessment will inform, but not replace, teachers’ professional judgments.’
Last year’s SSLN involved about 10,500 pupils in 2,200 schools who completed a range of assessments. Unlike previous years, the results were not published in March or April, and the Scottish Government was criticised for holding them back until after the Holyrood election in May.
The report revealed that just two in five youngsters in S2 performed well in maths, down 2 per cent on previous figures.