Failure to close attainment gap between rich and poor pupils highlights a big SNP problem
A period in which politicians under-promise and over-deliver would help improve public trust in democracy
After becoming First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon asked to be judged on education and pledged her government would close the educational attainment gap between children from wealthy and poor families by 2026.
As that deadline approaches, new figures have shown that, despite some slight improvements, the various gaps have remained considerable, with a 19.4 percentage-point difference for literacy and a 16.6-point gap for numeracy among primary school pupils. For S3 students, the gaps were smaller at 10.8 for literacy and 11.6 for numeracy, but still a long way from being entirely eradicated.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the results showed “clear progress is being made” and that is true. However, the Liberal Democrats claimed at the current rate of improvement, it would take 133 years to close the gap in achievement for numeracy at primary school level. And Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs pointed out there was still a “chasm between the most and least disadvantaged kids”.
A persistent SNP theme
No one should be in any doubt that closing the attainment gap is a difficult task. It is also a laudable aim to try to do so.
However, the government’s abject failure over the years, in stark contrast with the optimism of Sturgeon’s promises, underlines what has become a persistent theme of the SNP government: over-promising and under-achieving.
It is one thing to set a target, quite another to achieve it. The suspicion has grown that the SNP has become too accustomed to making fine sounding pledges – particularly ones that suggest Scotland is going to do better than England, with the independence question seemingly always at the forefront of their minds – while failing to do the complicated, detailed work required to make things happen.
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Cynicism about politics
Some may say that setting ‘stretch’ targets that are unlikely to be achieved is a good thing as it can galvanise people to do more than they otherwise might. The small attainment gap improvements provide evidence against that idea.
It also makes people cynical about politics at a time when public trust is dangerously low. This may be difficult for politicians to contemplate, but a period of under-promising and over-delivering is long overdue.
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