SNP should take lessons from England on driving up standards in schools
Education secretary Mairi McAllan’s snub to Michael Gove’s offer to help puts party politics before children’s needs
Mairi McAllan deserves at least some credit for acknowledging the need for change in Scotland’s schools in the wake of last week’s disappointing Pisa results, which showed declines in maths and reading.
Writing in The Scotsman’s sister title Scotland on Sunday, she said she intends to be a “reforming” education secretary and strengthen the emphasis on knowledge across every subject.
The Pisa scores, a ranking of education in 91 countries produced by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, showed a decline in results for Scotland, which has a skills-based curriculum, in contrast with success for England, where there is a greater emphasis on knowledge.
However, critics including Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at Edinburgh University, do not believe the education secretary’s pledge goes far enough.
And Lord Michael Gove, who was responsible for introducing school reforms south of the Border during David Cameron’s premiership, has offered to meet Ms McAllan to discuss possible improvements in Scotland.
The Tory peer, who is originally from Aberdeen, said: “When you are a minister, you have to follow the evidence. All the evidence is that during the course of the last 15 years, Scotland has moved from having a superior education system, a superior school system to England, to one where it’s fallen dramatically behind.”
This may be uncomfortable for Ms McAllan and the SNP administration at Holyrood, but it is also true.
Rejecting Lord Gove’s offer, Ms McAllan said: “With all respect to Mr Gove and what he undertook as education secretary in England, as one of the principal architects of austerity, welfare reform and Brexit … he’s not at the top of my list of those to meet and take advice from.”
This is simply not good enough. Scotland’s children deserve better than for the government minister tasked with education to put narrow party political concerns before exploring all avenues to make much-needed improvements in our schools.
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