Scotland’s rapid decline in education standards revealed

5 Dec 2019

Scotland’s alarming descent down world education league tables has been revealed.

Earlier this week the Pisa report – which evaluates education systems in countries across the world – exposed the SNP’s dire performance in key areas.

Today at First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw revealed the extent to which standards have slipped since the nationalists came to power compared with other OECD countries.

In science, performance dipped by 25 points, the second highest in the world, with only Finland performing worse.

And in maths, the demise in results since 2006 has only been eclipsed by Finland, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.

However, instead of taking responsibility for the performance, Nicola Sturgeon denied there were problems in Scotland’s schools system.

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said:

“These figures show disastrous drops in performance in key subjects like science and maths.

“Yet the SNP’s response to this as almost been as alarming as the results themselves.

“Nicola Sturgeon admitted previously that performance wasn’t good enough yet, now that things have got even worse, she’s in complete denial about it.

“And all the while, our young people are deprived of the kind of education children in other countries are receiving.

“That will restrict their opportunities, and harm our economy in future.

“The SNP promised to have an ‘unwavering focus’ on improving standards in schools.

“But instead, Nicola Sturgeon’s only unwavering performance has been on trying to force through another unwanted and divisive referendum.”