By Lucy Ashton
The Holyrood parliament will be told that Scottish education is “in freefall under the SNP” when the Scottish Conservatives use their party business slot tomorrow (Wednesday) to focus on the subject.
Last week’s PISA report, comparing nations across the globe, highlighted plummeting standards for reading, maths and science in Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives will highlight the plethora of issues affecting Scotland’s education system, which jeopardise not only young people’s education, but the safety of staff and students in schools.
Shadow education secretary Liam Kerr describes the SNP’s record in education as ‘abysmal’, and stresses his party will stand up for all those who have been failed by them.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liam Kerr MSP said: “Scotland’s education system, which was once the envy of the world, is in freefall after 16 years of SNP mismanagement.
“The latest PISA report highlighted that Scotland is going backwards when it comes to reading, maths and science – and lagging way behind performance levels in England.
“The survey also highlighted the alarming levels of violence and antisocial behaviour in Scottish schools.
“But PISA is just the latest evidence of the SNP’s shameful failure in education – and there would be even more had ministers not cynically pulled Scotland out of other international league tables to save face.
“A whole generation of children have been failed by the SNP’s broken promise to eradicate the poverty-related attainment gap and their disastrous implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, while teaching staff have been subjected to unprecedented levels of physical and verbal abuse.
“For 16 years, successive education secretaries have neglected our education system, and students and staff have suffered the consequences. It’s simply unacceptable.
“That’s why the Scottish Conservatives will use our party business slot this week to turn the spotlight on the SNP’s abysmal record in education, and outline the measures we would take to restore standards.”