SNP accused of ‘pitiful’ progress on education manifesto pledges
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Opposition politicians have accused the SNP of making “pitiful” progress on a manifesto election pledge to end a postcode lottery in education.
The party promised in 2021 to establish a National Digital Academy that would give students full access to subjects at Higher level, regardless of where they live or the location of their school.
The Scottish Conservatives claim that, more than two-and-a-half years since the election, “not a single penny” has been spent on creating the academy with just four civil servants currently working on the plan, which is at the development stage.
The disclosure has fuelled fresh criticism of the SNP’s record on education after Scottish pupils scored record low results in reading skills, maths and science in an international study.
‘Nothing short of pitiful’
Liam Kerr, the Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary, said successive SNP education secretaries had displayed “a complete lack of urgency” in delivering a key election pledge.
“The SNP’s progress on creating a National Digital Academy is nothing short of pitiful. Jenny Gilruth [the education minister] must urgently explain why so few people are working on this key manifesto commitment and when plans for the academy will finally come to fruition.”
The criticism came as teachers’ leaders said they would press ministers for more funding in the wake of the Scottish Budget that they said provided no additional resources for schools. Andrea Bradley, the general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) trade union, warned that schools lacked funding to reduce class sizes and employ more teachers.
Earlier this month, a global study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that, in maths, Scotland had the widest attainment gap between the wealthiest and poorest pupils of any of the UK home nations.
The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment revealed Scotland had dropped 18 points in maths since the tests were last administered in 2018 – the equivalent of nearly an entire year of schooling.
The score for reading plunged by 11 points, and in science it fell by seven points, below the average score among the 81 participating countries.
Laptop scheme delayed by cuts
It emerged last month that a £14 million project to provide a free laptop to every school pupil, pledged by the SNP ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, had again been delayed due to budget cuts.
The Scottish Government pointed out that 280,000 devices had been distributed to young people across Scotland and that ministers were considering options to honour the laptop commitment.
Mr Kerr added: “This failure to get a digital academy off the ground is just the latest in a litany of education-related failures from the SNP. They’ve failed miserably in eradicating the attainment gap in our schools and recently announced a further delay to their much-promised rollout of free laptops to every pupil.”
The Scottish Government said work is underway to develop options for a National Digital Academy with key stakeholders.
Responding to concerns raised by EIS, a spokesman added: “Children, young people, families and learners continue to be a key priority for the Scottish Government which is why the education and skills budget has grown to over £4.8 billion for 2024-2, with a 5 per cent lift in resource spend compared to last year.”
