SNP school record a 'national disgrace' - Douglas Ross

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross criticised Humza Yousaf at First Minister's Questions

The Scottish government's record on education is a "national disgrace", the Scottish Tory leader has said.

Douglas Ross said pupils were being failed by a "disastrous" education revamp, while Labour leader Anas Sarwar said Scotland was lagging behind.

It comes after an international study reported a long-term decline in Scotland's performance in reading, maths and science.

Humza Yousaf said criticism based one set of "poor" results was "unfair".

• Scottish education performance falling, says study

• Pass rate falls as Scottish pupils get exam results

The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) research, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), measured the performance of nearly 700,000 students from 81 countries, including 3,300 pupils across 117 schools in Scotland.

Mr Ross told MSPs at First Minister's Questions that maths and science scores had fallen year-on-year since the SNP came to power in 2007.

The Scottish Tory MSP said the Curriculum for Excellence, introduced in 2012, had cost Scotland's children and should be scrapped, calling for "urgent action".

First Minister Humza Yousaf has defended his government's record on education

"A generation of Scots have already been failed and another generation are being let down by Humza Yousaf and the SNP," he said.

Mr Yousaf acknowledged that the Pisa results were "poor" but said the government would not take them "lightly".

He highlighted school spending per pupil in Scotland was higher than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The first minister told MSPs that the education secretary would make a statement next week after reflecting on the results.

He said that while Covid had impacted education across the world, he denied using it as an "excuse".

"To suggest from one set of results that the education system is failing, as Douglas Ross is doing, is simply not true and frankly it is an insult to the brilliant job our teachers do," Mr Yousaf said.

'Once the envy of the world'

Mr Sarwar told MSPs: "Our education system was once the envy of the world now, because of this government we lag behind."

He pointed out that the number of pupils with additional support needs (ASN) had risen to more than 240,000 in 2022, up from 36,500 in 2007. He said the number of ASN teachers had dropped by 200 in that period.

Mr Sarwar said the government had broken promises to keep class sizes at 18 and under, to close the attainment gap, provide free school meals for all primary school pupils and digital devices for pupils.

Mr Yousaf accused critics of "hyperbole" and said he would "not apologise" for the government's record on education.

He pointed to the biggest single-year fall in the attainment gap among primary school pupils for numeracy and literacy, as well as more children from areas of deprivation going to university and 94.3% of 16 to 19-year-olds being in employment, education or training over the past year.

The Pisa study reported an "unprecedented drop" in performance, on average, across participating countries compared to the 2018 paper.

Scotland's score for reading was 493, down from 504 in 2018, while its score for maths was 471, down from 489 in 2018.

In science, Scotland's score was 483 points, below the 490 result in 2018.

Scotland was outperformed by England in all three subjects, and by Northern Ireland in maths and science. However, it fared better than Wales in all three subjects and outperformed Northern Ireland in reading.