The SNP’s failures in Education have led to a decline in standards in literacy, reading, writing, listening and talking skills since 2018. That’s the view of Brian Whittle MSP who criticised the Scottish Government’s approach.
His comments follow the publication of the National Improvement Framework report, which shows the number of pupils reaching expected levels of attainment in basic skills. Analysis by the Scottish Conservatives shows that of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, 31 have seen a fall in the percentage of pupils in P1, P4 and P7 meeting literacy, reading and writing targets. 29 of 32 councils also saw falls in the percentage of pupils meeting the expected levels for listening and talking and numeracy.
East Ayrshire saw drops of more than 10 percent in literacy, reading, writing and numeracy. This means it was among the local authorities with the most significant declines across a range of skills.
Brian believes the figures demonstrate that the SNP’s decisions in government are responsible for the decline in Scotland’s education system during their 15 years in power.
With fewer and pupils in East Ayrshire achieving the expected levels of attainment in primary school, Brian says the SNP can’t continue to claim that education is truly a top priority for them.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“The first duty of Scotland’s schools must be to give pupils the basic skills needed to learn but, thanks to the failure of the Scottish Government to give schools the support they need, these figures show that the number of pupils meeting this standard in East Ayrshire and across Scotland are falling.
Scotland used to be recognised as having one of the best education systems anywhere in the world, but the SNP have trashed that reputation. They’ve even opted out of internationally recognised league tables because they don’t want to have to admit the extent of the decline in our system compared to others around the world.
15 years of SNP failure on education has only been compounded by the pandemic and it’s leaving pupils struggling and teachers with no support.
It’s time for the SNP to live up to their promises on education or they will be responsible for failing an entire generation of young Scots. The mediocrity of this Scottish Government is unacceptable.”