Back to school at Holyrood

Nicola Sturgeon visited Edinburgh technology business CompanyNet on Tuesday

Nicola Sturgeon often says she wishes to be judged as first minster on her government's record in education.

By doing so she is taking a major risk. If she is not able to deliver on those promises, voters may judge her and her administration harshly.

Clearly she cares passionately about trying to close the attainment gap which sees pupils from better off homes performing better in school than kids from more deprived backgrounds.

But nearly three years after she became first minister, standards in Scottish schools have been judged by international measures to be slipping in reading, writing and maths. Her political opponents say she should be embarrassed by her record.

On Tuesday she will again say that education is the "defining mission" of her government. She has put her most able minister, the Deputy First Minister John Swinney, in charge of education reform.

John Swinney has been placed in charge of education reform

She will announce school reforms that will give head teachers more powers and freedoms over how they run their schools. Those reforms will need to deliver positive results before the next Scottish elections four years from now.

The opposition parties in Scotland frequently accuse the SNP, and Nicola Sturgeon in particular, of ignoring the "day job". They say she has neglected her domestic agenda whilst arguing for a second Scottish referendum.

Now that another vote on independence has been taken off the agenda for now, even Ms Sturgeon herself has adopted the vocabulary of the opposition and says she is getting on with the "day job".

After a bruising result in the general election which saw the SNP lose 21 MPs, she knows she has to steady the ship at Holyrood and be seen to energetically tackle problems in schools, hospitals and beyond.

Solid record

That's why she will introduce 16 new pieces of legislation, in addition to the 11 bills currently in front of the Scottish parliament - making for an extremely busy parliamentary session.

That is in contrast to last year, when very little legislation was passed - adding to the accusation that the SNP were more interested in arguing for constitutional change than governing Scotland with the powers the Scottish Parliament already has.

Ms Sturgeon has not, and never will, give up on her ambition to make Scotland an independent country. If she is ever to reach that goal, she knows she has to have a solid record of achievement in government behind her.

So for the next four years she will have to concentrate on the "day job" - night and day.