Improving Attainment, Tackling Inequality and Strengthening National Standards : Amendment 2

As an amendment to motion S7M-01963 in the name of Katherine Sangster (Improving Attainment, Tackling Inequality and Strengthening National Standards), insert at end “; expresses serious concern that the Scottish Government has failed to reverse declining school standards, close the attainment gap or adequately support the rising number of pupils with additional support needs (ASN); notes that around one in four primary pupils is not achieving expected literacy levels and one in five is not achieving expected numeracy levels, and that Scotland recorded its poorest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results to date with pupils falling behind their counterparts in England in reading, mathematics and science; condemns the Scottish Government’s focus on headline-grabbing policies, including the proposed £2.7 million Welcome to School Bag, and its failure to deliver promised funded bikes and laptops; believes that the Scottish Government has failed to collect and publish reliable, comparable information on school performance and that positive destination statistics are wholly inadequate as a measure of educational success; calls for consistent annual reporting, publicly available and comparable over time and across all local authorities, on attainment, the attainment gap, attendance, persistent absence, exclusions, classroom violence, disruptive behaviour and ASN; questions the effectiveness of Education Scotland in driving improvement, and calls on the Scottish Government to deliver a credible and comprehensive plan to raise attainment and restore confidence in Scotland’s schools, to prioritise a knowledge-based, evidence-led curriculum with literacy, numeracy and subject knowledge at its core, and to establish clear national standards, measurable targets and robust accountability for educational outcomes.”