Chamber and committees

I do not doubt that all of us round this table want to see that. You mentioned the worth of all learners, which is important, but the idea of a Scottish diploma of achievement is that it is an award, because people need to understand the skill set. You mentioned credit, competence and core skills, but I am not clear on how an employer who is taking on someone straight from school will be able to understand what level of literacy and numeracy that individual who is coming into their business will have. In putting the flesh on the bones of that, have you—or the Scottish Government, in the work that you have been doing together—taken that forward?

An interesting point, which you raised earlier, is about the change that there has been in that the 20 per cent of pupils who we have been talking about—those who are not achieving a nat 5 level qualification—are still in school between S4 and S5. That may have changed since I was at secondary school.

I want to understand more about the positive destinations that the Government talks about. In the Government’s response, it said that it will look at the possibility of a leaving certificate. You have outlined the value that the proposed diploma of achievement would have. For the college sector, that is quite clear for apprenticeship development, but employers need to be able to understand what skill set a young person has when they are taking them on. What work has been done on that? Although the Government is saying that it is looking at the possibility of a leaving certificate, is that going to miss the point?

Does anyone have anything to add to that?

Yes.

Dr Sue Ellis, a former professor of education at the University of Strathclyde, has stated that councils are

“stuck between a rock and a hard place”,

and I am sure that the cabinet secretary has seen the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities briefing about that. Does she agree that that is the position that the Scottish Government has put councils in on teacher numbers?

Deputy Presiding Officer, from what you have just said, I think that you would make a good headteacher.

I thank my Scottish Conservative colleagues, Liam Kerr and Sue Webber, for the power of work that they undertook as my party’s spokesman on education and skills and as the convener of the Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee. In taking up my new role, I look forward to working with the cabinet secretary and education spokespeople from other parties.

We on the Conservative benches want to work to make sure that all of our young people have the best start in life, so I am pleased that the Scottish Conservatives are using our first party business debate under Russell Findlay’s leadership to raise the concerns of parents, teachers and our young people about the situation in many of our classrooms today.

I am proud to have attended good state primary and secondary schools in Perthshire. Looking back, that good, high-quality comprehensive Scottish education gave many of us the opportunity to get ahead, regardless of our background. It was a system where teachers had the freedom and ability to focus on teaching and making sure that young people were equally focused on learning and achieving the best possible outcomes.

I know, from teachers who I have spoken to since I was given this job, that today they want the same opportunity to deliver for our young people in schools, but reforms over the past few years have significantly reduced that opportunity. We have now seen that reflected in outcomes, with the decline in literacy and numeracy.

After almost two decades of Scottish National Party rule, the opportunity for our young people to succeed has been undermined, our global reputation has been severely tarnished, standards have been allowed to fall, subject choices have shrunk and our schools are plummeting down international educational league tables. New data that was published in August shows that pass rates for national 5, higher and advanced higher qualifications have all fallen, while the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils in our country is increasing. We have to be honest that not all is well in Scottish education. If we are to realise the potential of all of our young people, we urgently need to fix the problems that our schools face and help to restore Scottish education standards to where they should be—at the top of the international educational league tables.

After 25 years of devolution, educational decline has taken place in Scotland, and most of that time has been under the SNP Government. There is real concern about the cabinet secretary’s decision to withhold £145 million of funding from local authorities. That will risk teacher numbers across Scotland declining further, and teacher numbers in Scotland have already fallen over the past two years. Parents, teachers and young people are concerned by the real threat to teacher numbers in Glasgow and to the school week in Falkirk, and ministers cannot just blame councils for the situation when it is SNP ministers in Holyrood who hold the purse strings.

We need a proper national workforce plan, and it should shame SNP ministers that so many qualified teachers are already struggling to obtain permanent employment in Scotland today. The Scottish teachers for permanence campaign estimates that more than 3,800 qualified teachers in Scotland are searching for permanent workplaces across the country. The situation is unacceptable, and the teaching profession is looking for leadership, not excuses.

Furthermore, the SNP’s consistent underfunding of local authorities has placed additional support needs services in a precarious position; the numbers of ASN teachers has consistently declined since 2010. More than 250,000 pupils in Scotland need additional support, and they have been consistently let down by this SNP Government, which has overpromised and underdelivered. Pupils, parents and teachers deserve better.

The Scottish Conservatives have always tried to work constructively to deliver for our young people. That is why I have to say that I have a major concern about the decline in literacy levels in Scotland, with more than one in four Scottish state school pupils not achieving literacy levels. If our young people cannot read, they cannot learn. Scotland faces a growing literacy crisis, with up to 30 per cent of secondary school students having a reading age two or more years below their actual age, and many are much further behind.

Scotland’s literacy challenges are not a recent development, but they are getting worse. The Clackmannanshire study, which was published in the early 2000s, was a landmark piece of research, but ministers have failed to deliver what that research suggested. At the same time, literacy rates in England are improving, so we need to learn from some of the teaching down south. Specifically, I appeal to the cabinet secretary to look at how we can reform literacy teaching in schools.

Over the recess, I looked at phonics teaching, and there are compelling findings from the work that is taking place in English schools. I hope that the cabinet secretary will be open to pursuing that approach, because the effectiveness of phonics teaching is now quite obvious. The study found that children who were taught phonics excelled not only in word reading but in comprehension and spelling. Despite those compelling findings, Scotland has made limited progress in implementing the study’s recommendations at the national level. That is why I make no apologies for the approach that I intend to take in focusing on outcomes and looking at how we can empower our teaching professionals.

There is nothing more important for the future of Scotland than the education that we provide for our young people to enable them to go on to achieve their potential. After 17 years of SNP Government, the facts are that classroom standards are plummeting, violence is rising, young Scots—often those from the poorest backgrounds—are being left behind, teacher numbers in Scotland are declining, secure full-time posts are scarce and there is the risk of cuts to school hours and to the number of additional support assistants. In the coming weeks and months ahead of the election, the Scottish Conservatives will demonstrate how we want to bring common sense back to our classrooms and put Scottish education back to where it should be—at the top of international league tables.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that the Scottish Government withholding £145 million in funding from local authorities will risk teacher numbers across Scotland declining further; notes that teacher numbers in Scotland have already been declining for two years in a row; acknowledges that many teachers are already struggling to obtain permanent employment; recognises the efforts of the Scottish Teachers for Permanence Campaign, which represents 3,800 teachers searching for permanent work in Scotland; expresses alarm about potential cuts to classroom assistant numbers and the school week due to shortfalls in local authority funding from the Scottish Government, and believes that Scottish Government funding should be used to improve Scotland’s schools.

As the cabinet secretary is the constituency member, he will be aware of real concerns about the closure of the museum due to unplanned staffing issues and costs facing the council. We simply cannot allow such a brilliant collection of archive material celebrating the stories of the people of Edinburgh to be lost to the city and, I believe, to Scotland. Have the Scottish Government’s culture services offered support to the council to help provide for the sustainable reopening of the museum? Will the cabinet secretary agree to visit the museum with me when it reopens, which I hope will be in December?

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding the proposed closure of Edinburgh’s People’s Story museum. (S6O-03818)

Yes, it is specifically around voids and empty properties. What co-ordination work is being done in COSLA on that? Here in the capital, we have 3,000 empty council-owned properties. That has not changed for a long time. Across Scotland, where is COSLA seeing that solutions to bring empty properties back into use are not being realised? How can that work be taken forward between the Government and local government? The Government is saying that councils should be bringing those properties back and councils are saying that they do not have the resources, yet we are seeing those properties being left unutilised, with record numbers of people and families in temporary accommodation.

In all those discussions, where is bringing empty properties back into use being made a priority?

I will try to merge my two questions, convener.

First, the Accounts Commission has stated that councils

“urgently need to transform how they deliver services”.

What is your view on that?

Moreover, at a recent CIPFA conference, a director of finance said that councils need to

“do less with less, but do it really well”.

How can there be more efficiency in local government? What should the Scottish Government do to help take that forward?