Swinney was once a safe pair of hands – but now he has to go

JOHN Swinney’s statement in Holyrood yesterday was truly historic. There has never been another one like it. It is the first resignation speech that did not include a resignation.

The SNP Education Secretary finally confirmed his monumental U-turn from his original plans to downgrade the marks of 75,000 school pupils, including thousands from the most deprived backgrounds. It was a U-turn as welcome as it was lethargic.

The Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly called for alternative approaches that would not have downgraded the life chances of Scotland’s young people so severely, including the option of sitting exams later in the year and allowing prelim grades or original teacher estimates to stand.

As far back as May, we called for the SNP to publish the methodology behind the SQA’s grading system so a disaster like this could be avoided.

This decision means that students across Scotland can now breathe a sigh of relief. But they should never have had to face the anxiety and stress they did for nearly a week of this fiasco in the first place.

Many students will have gone through a rollercoaster of emotions in the past six days, as their hopes of university, college or training places were shattered by the SNP’s arbitrary algorithm.

Teachers, too, will be pleased that John Swinney has discovered a newfound trust in their judgment.

They weighed up the evidence of their pupils’ aptitude and made difficult decisions, only to see the SNP Government ignore them and create a top-down system that prioritised postcodes over potential.

Catastrophe

Now the focus needs to turn to making sure the replacement exam certificates are issued in full and without delay. It is one thing to announce a reversal of position, and another thing to implement it without error.

The Scottish Conservatives will now monitor this process closely to ensure that no pupils are left behind.

But the big unanswered question here is why Mr Swinney still has a job. On this catastrophe alone, he has completely lost the confidence of teachers, parents and young people the length and breadth of Scotland.

Yesterday, he admitted that he not only presided over a system that worsened inequality among youngsters, but he directed the Scottish Qualifications Authority to create it.

And let’s not forget that last week he claimed that ‘there is no evidence young people in deprived communities have been disadvantaged’ – and was backed by his boss, Nicola Sturgeon, all the way.

It seems the Education Secretary was prepared to back his flawed system to the hilt right up to the moment it looked like opposition parties would unite to force him out.

That would be bad enough on its own, but it’s the latest in a long line of failures that have occurred on his watch.

Only a few months ago he was forced by the Scottish Conservatives to abandon his disgraceful plans for ‘blended’ learning, which could have led to pupils in school just two or three days a week.

A whole generation of children were at risk of being left behind until Mr Swinney backtracked and allowed schools to return full-time this month. We were promised that his Education Bill would be the most radical reform to Scottish education since devolution and solve a host of systemic problems.

Then he got cold feet in the face of opposition from unions and decided to abandon it.

His hated ‘Named Person’ proposals were struck down by the UK Supreme Court for interfering with the right to privacy and family life.

Mr Swinney tried to claim the plans could be revived but eventually conceded defeat after a lengthy battle with parents, campaigners and other parties in parliament.

After being defeated by a resounding vote in the Holyrood chamber over plans for standardised testing of primary 1 pupils, Mr Swinney refused to back down, treating teachers and the Scottish parliament with contempt.

He has continually allowed Scottish school standards to slip down the international rankings, with maths and science now at record lows in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study. Scottish schools used to be among the best in the world, but under Mr Swinney and the SNP, we can’t even claim to be average any more.

Add that to the erosion of the number of subjects that can be studied by pupils under the SNP’s failed curriculum reforms, and the continued scandal of multiple year groups being taught in the same classroom.

It’s no wonder teachers feel stretched and unsupported when there are more than 3,600 fewer of them since the SNP came to power.

As schools return this week, it emerges that local authorities are still advertising more than 200 teaching posts.

Abandoned

A major review into the SNP’s curriculum by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is expected to be highly critical of the SNP Government, was originally due to be published in February of next year, but has now been conveniently pushed back to after the next Scottish parliament election.

And the SNP’s flagship policy of 1,140 hours of free childcare per year by 2020 – announced by Miss Sturgeon at party conference to thunderous applause and media plaudits – has now been abandoned, supposedly because of the pandemic.

Of course, the SNP press release made no mention of the fact Audit Scotland had expressed severe doubts that the Government was on track to meet the deadline.

It is now clear that Mr Swinney is no longer the SNP’s safe pair of hands. He was once their trusted lieutenant, sent in to every crisis to prevent it becoming worse. Now, he has become the crisis himself.

He has lurched from one issue to the next, seemingly incapable of restoring our schools to the world-leading levels that they once were.

We were promised an exams system that would disadvantage no one.

We were promised dialogue, openness and fairness for all.

We were promised that education would be Nicola Sturgeon’s top priority.

Instead, we got a methodology clouded in secret, a total lack of transparency and engagement, teachers ignored – and now pupils being forced through an appalling postcode lottery that disgracefully penalised those from our toughest communities.

Mr Swinney must do the honourable thing and go. He has demonstrated time and time again that he is simply not the person for the job any more. There can be no more second chances and final straws. He has failed Scottish pupils for too long and in too many ways for his reputation to remain intact.

If he cannot see that he must go, there is only one other option. Nicola Sturgeon must sack him.

Enough is enough.