Moray MP slams Scottish government over "shameful" PISA education results
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MORAY MP Douglas Ross has slammed the SNP-Green government for continuing to preside over a “shameful” decline in Scottish education.
The criticism comes following the publication of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report which measures standards among nearly 700,000 school pupils worldwide.
The study looks at 15-year-olds from 81 countries and the results from 2022 show that Scotland’s score in maths and science are at their worst ever levels.
While Scotland’s reading performance was higher than the OECD average, it fell compared to the score recorded in 2018 – and like in maths and science – the performance in Scotland was significantly worse than in England.
Moray MP Douglas Ross said: “The PISA findings are a damning indictment of the SNP’s mismanagement of Scotland’s education system during their 16 years in power.
“The fact that maths and science scores are now at their lowest ever level is shameful. The SNP are letting down pupils across Moray and we know from their failure to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap in our schools, it is pupils from the poorest backgrounds who will be suffering the most.
“The SNP’s record on education is one of abject failure and they continue to let down pupils, parents and staff in Moray and across Scotland at every turn.
"If they don’t wake up to this issue and change things, more pupils in Moray and across Scotland will pay the price.”
During First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood on Thursday (November 7), Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf was challenged on the rankings. He said: “Let me put it on record and let me be absolutely explicit – we do not dismiss, I do not dismiss, nor take lightly the Pisa results that have been released this week.
“We are reflecting on a poor set of results and the Education Secretary will make a statement next week on the issue of literacy and numeracy and what our response is to improving those outcomes.”
He added: “There is no doubt, as the OECD makes clear in the publication, that Covid has had an impact."
The full PISA report can be accessed here.
