Labour to force vote to 'improve transparency' in Scottish education

Scottish Labour is to force a parliamentary vote pushing for improved data collection in education.

It plans to ask for cross-party support for transparency following concerns the current system leaves parents, pupils and teachers in the dark.

Concerns about accurate and comparable data collection were raised following this year’s PISA results.

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Labour claims greater transparency in education data is an “essential first step” in improving the country’s schools.

Scottish Labour Education spokeswoman Katherine Sangster said: “We need an honest assessment of what is and what isn’t working in our system - and only regular, transparent and independent data will help us do that.

“Every party who cares about making Scottish education world leading again should back our motion this week.”

Scottish Labour will use its opposition business slot on Wednesday to ask other parties to support its plan.

This includes the reintroduction of the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) and a measurement of school experience, as well as exam results.

It also calls for a new longitudinal study tracking the experience of pupils through school and into the workplace.

Labour’s plan further includes an aim to standardise definitions and reporting across Scotland and a new Scottish Education Data dashboard.

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Critics say Scotland's system for monitoring literacy and numeracy was weakened when the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) was scrapped in 2017.

A Holyrood committee warned in 2019 that its replacement left a gap of at least five years in comparable data, making it harder to track national performance.

MSPs also raised concerns about the loss of robust evidence needed to scrutinise ministers' education policies.

Scottish Labour is now calling for the survey to be reinstated as part of a drive for greater transparency over school standards.

“Labour will call on all parties in Holyrood to back our plan for a better and more transparent data in education this week,” Ms Sangster added.

“Parents and pupils are being left in the dark and the current situation of ministers effectively marking their own homework is not sustainable.

“Scotland’s education system used to be the best in the world and our ambition should be for it to be the best again.

“But to get there, we need to know where we are, and that means a radical overhaul in data transparency in the education system.”

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Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels and, subsequently, the Scottish National Standardised Assessments replaced SSLN.

The change meant a greater reliance on teacher-judgement data and international surveys that operate less frequently and at different stages.

As well as the reintroduction of the SSLN, Labour will push for the collection of national evidence on what pupils are taught and what they experience in school, including curriculum breadth, subject choice, teaching methods, attendance, behaviour, pastoral and ASN support, relationships and wellbeing.

Ms Sangster said this would give a picture of how school experiences relate to attainment and wider outcomes.

Scotland's latest PISA results, published in September prompted criticism of the SNP's education record, with opposition parties accusing ministers of complacency over declining performance in maths and reading.

However, education secretary Màiri McAllan defended the results, pointing to Scotland's above-average performance in four of five assessment areas and signs of stabilisation since 2022. Opposition parties, however, said the figures showed the system had flatlined.

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Scottish pupils were shown to lag more than a year behind their English counterparts in some subjects.

The government announced in 2023 Scotland would rejoin Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), having withdrawn from both in 2010.