Politics

Scottish Government must address scandal of falling school standards

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson


USPA NEWS - The Scottish Government must take meaningful action to tackle the “scandal“ of falling school standards.

Figures published yesterday showed pupils´ reading skills had fallen, leaving Scotland well behind other countries across the world.
It comes a year after similar statistics revealed the numeracy ability of youngsters was also declining.

Today, at First Minister´s Questions, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson challenged the SNP to take action to turn the trend around.

She urged Nicola Sturgeon to “ditch the dogma“ and take on Scottish Conservative proposals to introduce education reforms.

Those include giving schools the ability to withdraw from local authority control and handing teachers and parents more power over diversity on what is taught and offered.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:

“To have the greatest opportunities, our young people need higher standards in schools.

“We´ve heard enough talk of strategies and frameworks, and still the numbers are going in the wrong direction.

“We need meaningful action, and for the Scottish Government to ditch the dogma and undertake the genuine reforms that are so badly needed.

“Reading and writing skills in Scotland´s schools are getting worse ““ it´s all happened on the SNP´s watch and that is a scandal.

“After similarly poor statistics on numeracy were revealed last year, the Scottish Government only came up with sticking plasters to get it through the news cycle.

“But what works is casting off the one-size-fits-all approach which dictates that the town hall knows best, and instead handing teachers and parents genuine power for change.

“We need true diversity in the way we teach our children, and the First Minister ought to be brave enough to embrace that approach.“

more information: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-32513792

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