First Minister admits Scotland's education results 'not good enough'

The First Minister admits results from the latest student assessment rankings are “not good enough”.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings for 2022 were published earlier this week.

The study, which looked at 3,300 Scottish 15-year-olds, showed Scotland has declined in maths, reading and science since 2018.

Pandemic blamed as major reason for decline in results

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth and the OECD both believe that the Covid pandemic, which forced many pupils to learn from home, is responsible for the decline.

During First Minister's Questions at Holyrood on Thursday, Humza Yousaf was challenged on the rankings by both Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and Scottish Labour counterpart Anas Sarwar.

Mr Ross said a "generation of young Scots" are "being failed by the SNP".

Mr Yousaf responded:

"Let me put it on record and let me be absolutely explicit - we do not dismiss, I do not dismiss, nor take lightly the Pisa results that have been released this week.

"We are reflecting on a poor set of results and the Education Secretary will make a statement next week on the issue of literacy and numeracy and what our response is to improving those outcomes."

He added: "There is no doubt, as the OECD makes clear in the publication, that Covid has had an impact.

"The OECD described it as their 'Covid edition'."

First Minister believes level of criticism is "unfair"

The First Minister said some of the commentary around the results had been "unfair".

Mr Ross pushed the First Minister to scrap the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence, claiming it "cannot be a coincidence" that Pisa results have declined during the period it was implemented - beginning in 2010.

But Mr Yousaf rejected the calls, saying some of the challenges in the education system "pre-date" Curriculum for Excellence.

Meanwhile, Mr Sarwar said the Pisa results demonstrate "16 years of SNP Government failure".

Mr Yousaf said Scotland's score in reading is higher than the OECD average, but conceded "we have to make sure we are not on a trajectory of decline".

He added: "Let's not, for one set of data, suddenly dismiss the entirety of Scottish education.

"That would be unfair on the excellent job that our hardworking teachers do, but also the hard work that our pupils do day in and day out."

Scottish pupils being "left behind"

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton accused the Scottish Government of "squandering the once proud advantage that Scotland held in education".

Speaking at FMQs, he said: "What that means is that high wage, high skilled jobs of the future will go elsewhere if we get left behind."

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth will make a statement on the results next week.

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