The seven people most to blame for the scandalous failures of Scottish education – Brian Monteith
Scottish education would have been in a better state without devolution, writes Brian Monteith
Last week all eyes in the Scottish Parliament, at least, were on the new Education Secretary, Mairi McAllan. How would she react to the scandalous results for Scottish schools in the latest comparative international study of reading, maths and science?
She did not disappoint; disappointingly, she sought to deflect away from the hard reality of how far Scottish attainment has fallen, compared to other countries and especially England. Apparently we should not change course or do anything different, for while Scotland’s treasured “Curriculum for Excellence” – a newspeak title that George Orwell could not have bettered – is not producing the goods in science, English and maths, it is doing the business in those fortunately unmeasurable fields of arts, morals and problem solving.
The results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are bad for Scotland and even worse for Wales, but are not particularly McAllan’s fault, of course. She’s a new Education Secretary and has only kept a seat warm in Holyrood since 2021, although she has a Pavlovian ability to defend all things SNP.
A Scottish stereotype to be proud of
Let us be under no illusions. For most of the 20th century, Scotland was considered, in footballing terms, to be the Brazil or Germany of education. It was viewed as world beating.
Scotland’s education system was revered and copied. The physical expression of its achievement was not just the buildings, bridges, roads and railways of its engineers visible in every continent, or the inventions and discoveries of its scientists and curious minds that helped create the modern world, or the literature of its writers that helped establish the historical novel, the chase thriller and contribute to romanticism and storytelling.
No, it was that, in the literature and creative output produced by other countries, if there was a Scottish character, he or she was invariably humble and well-educated, with interesting opinions and observations. It was a stereotype we were generally proud of, but which may well have led to a degree of hubris that has been our undoing.
Scotland’s sense of self owes much to the ability of previous generations to comprehend and develop the languages of English, maths and science. It was what empowered us, the people of a small country with a challenging climate, to prosper in a world where others had significant material advantages.
The failure of Scotland’s education system does not rest just with the past First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who pretended it was her top priority – when the pursuit of power was always more important – nor of the current First Minister, John Swinney, that “safe pair of hands” who was Education Secretary for five years. It also rests with previous SNP education ministers, Fiona Hyslop (two years), Michael Russell (five), Angela Constance (two), Shirley-Anne Somerville (two) and Jenny Gilruth (three).
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A conspiracy of complacency and arrogance
Seven SNP Education Secretaries in 19 years contributed in some degree to developing and maintaining the façade that Scottish education was superior to others, especially the English schools that were undergoing a period of significant reform and change. They resisted the liberation of our schools by empowering head teachers, allowing greater vigour and diversity in our educational approach, and allowing new schools to compete.
Those responsible should be known, for what is the point of having devolution if our politicians who have the power and authority cannot be held accountable for their responsibilities? Some, such as Mike Russell, at least gave thought to challenging Scotland’s own educational blob – the conspiracy of complacency and arrogance shared by the education departments of our local councils, but most especially the teachers’ union, the Educational Institute of Scotland.
But it is a fallacy to pretend that the anti-English chauvinism of SNP education policy is solely responsible for Scotland’s standards falling relative to other countries and compared to how we were before devolution. We must also remember the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition’s pushback against the successful educational reforms of Michael Forsyth in the 1990s and England’s Andrew Adonis in the Blairite years.
The rejection of Forsyth’s reforms was because he was a Tory (and worse, a successful state-educated one); the rejection of Adonis’s reforms was because his were English and, sniffily, Scottish educationalists believed their approach was and would remain superior.
Forsyth’s empowerment of parents – by providing them with information about their children’s performance through testing and publication of school standards – together with the revolutionary creation of powerful school boards that proved increasingly popular was attacked and abandoned because it gave parents a voice. This ensured Scotland’s educational blob retained control.
Only Jack McConnell, when Education Secretary, gave a nod to Adonis’s academies by allowing six Scottish schools to adopt specialities in his Schools of Ambition programme. This was withdrawn in 2010 by Alex Salmond and Fiona Hyslop, the then Education Secretary.
This was all before the later and more powerful reforms pursued by English Education Secretary Michael Gove (ironically a Scots Tory) and the consistency of long-term education minister Nick Gibb. Probably no other man than Gibb has transformed the lives of British children for the better. It is such a pity then that his improvements were never applied in Scotland or Wales, while in Northern Ireland, the wrecking ball of Sinn Fein is now doing considerable damage.
If we had not had devolution, I have no doubt there would have been a greater chance of educational improvement across the whole UK and not just in Scotland. After 27 years, Holyrood must recognise it has to change course and it can start by accepting the help of those in England such as Gove and Gibb who made a real difference to the lives of heads, teachers and most especially the children.
Brian Monteith is a former member of the Scottish and European parliaments and editor-at-large of thereformer.scot
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