By Ian Findlay

THE SNP education spokesman on Dundee City Council last night issued a fresh call for the authority’s Labour-led administration to quit over the shocking performance of local secondary schools in a new set of performance tables.

Councillor John Corrigan—firing back at the administration after criticism of comments he made after the release of the figures late last week—said the SNP was ready to take up the reigns of the council and make a real attempt to solve problems in education and elsewhere.

“Our most difficult challenge would be to exceed your failures,” he told the administration.

Mr Corrigan’s remarks are the latest development in a row which broke out last week after the release by the Scottish Executive of aggregate figures showing Dundee’s 10 comprehensive schools were below all of the national averages for exam attainment and staying-on rates.

Dundee East SNP MSP Shona Robison also joined the row at the weekend, calling on the administration in the city to “raise their game for the sake of Dundee’s school pupils.”

She said she was “sick and tired of listening to paltry and lame excuses from the education convener and leader of the administration.”

After the release of the performance figures last week the administration was asked about the reasons for the city’s poor showing and what the education authority is doing about it.

Initially the response was limited, saying only that the city council was “absolutely committed” to continuing the effort to improve pupil achievement and pointing to one strategy launched last week as an indication of how seriously this task was being taken.

The SNP and independent Labour member Councillor Ian Borthwick attacked the administration’s performance over education matters, with Mr Corrigan making his first call for the administration to resign.

The following day education convener Kevin Keenan responded more fully to the poor performance figures by the secondary schools.

His statement included saying deprivation played its part in levels of attainment and so it was no surprise that Dundee, along with Glasgow and local authorities with similar problems, return similar levels of exam results.

He also accused Mr Corrigan of “using Dundee school pupils as a political football for his own party’s selfish gain.”

But the SNP councillor last night said that instead of attacking him, the administration should be explaining why they have failed Dundee’s schools.

“How can Councillor Keenan plead the excuse of local deprivation for educational failure when Labour have been in charge of Dundee’s schools since before I became a councillor nearly 17 years ago,” he commented.

“Why does he not blame his party who, with their Liberal- Democrat friends have been in charge of the Scottish Executive for seven years?”

Mr Corrigan said there were many remarkable achievements by some pupils locally and many parents who could be justifiably proud of these achievements.

“However, the position of Dundee schools in the latest important, published national scale of achievement was at the bottom of the list—and by a disturbing margin.

“If Councillor Keenan and his political leader Councillor Jill Shimi (the leader of the administration) can only respond to my real concern about Dundee schools and their wider educational potential by accusing me of playing politics, then they begin to explain why Labour and their political allies have failed Dundee schools,” said Mr Corrigan.

He said the real issue was the standard that Dundee schools could reach in a national context of educational achievement, and the problem was both difficult and challenging.

The morale of teachers, pupils and parents had to be raised. Class sizes had to be reduced and the serious issue of the behaviour of some pupils addressed firmly. Attendance records for some pupils were also a problem and had to be the subject of the same firm resolve.

Ms Robison said last night that she accepted that Dundee’s deprivation levels were a factor in the schools’ performance figures, but the administration had to accept that deprivation was also a factor in Glasgow’s results.

“Yet even Glasgow, with all of its problems, fared better than Dundee in the key test of the percentage of pupils gaining English and maths at level 3 or better, with Dundee ending up right at the bottom of the league.

“I do not believe for a moment that Dundee children are any less able or worse behaved than pupils in many other parts of Scotland,” she said.

“Therefore, I can only conclude that the major factor is the ability of those running education in Dundee.”