The Scottish Government has been forced to accept there are “key weaknesses” in parts of its education and qualifications structure following a debate in Holyrood.
Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Liz Smith, raised the debate and put forward a motion which called on the Scottish Government to accept “some key weaknesses in some key aspects of Scotland’s school education and the qualifications structure.”
A probe into worsening exam results ordered by Education Secretary John Swinney will be published publicly.
Mr Swinney has come under fire after it emerged he ordered a review into the reasons for the falling pass rates in Higher exams, while publicly putting the reduction down to “annual variance”.
Ms Smith’s motion was passed by 63 votes to 60 following an afternoon of debate in which concerns surrounding the SNP’s record on education were raised.
Dundee-based Labour MSP Jenny Marra highlighted concerns around multi-level teaching in Dundee – where teachers are forced to educate different ability and examination levels in the same class room because of cuts.
She said: “Multi-level teaching is a real problem in Dundee, with 42% of English classes in the city (being taught) at multi-level.
“Sixty-seven percent of physics classes are multi-level, 69% of biology classes and 58% of chemistry and 65 and 64% of geography and history are multi-level.
‘Staffing crisis’
“Dundee is on the sharp end of the staffing crisis…dwindling teaching numbers have left high schools operating at the bare bones.
“Teachers of 23 subjects are forced to accommodate three levels in one class.
“Did the cabinet secretary sit in a multi-level English class?
“I would contend that multi-level English classes are unprecedented and I don’t think today’s pupils should have to do so.”
Ms Marra also pointed out Dundee City Council would not allow pupils to sit advanced highers in classes of fewer than 10 pupils, instead “pooling” them together across the city, which she claimed was a waste of their time given the amount of time spent on buses between campuses.
Green MSP Ross Greer said: “The SNP’s response has been to stick their heads in the sand, claiming all is fine.
‘We will not stand for it’
“They’ve gone as far as not bringing a single education debate to Parliament for over two years. The result of this rare opposition debate shows that we will not stand for it though.
“Teacher numbers are 2,852 below what they were when the SNP came to government, subject choice has clearly narrowed and the two government agencies responsible seem unable to even speaking to each other.
“A thorough review will let us confirm exactly what the problems are and how we can solve them, the SNP should accept the will of Parliament and deliver more than just the already announced review of S4 to S6.”
Mr Swinney said: “Jenny Marra said we have presided over a 10-year decline in education and I’ll go through what’s happened.
“Of those achieving a national five qualification, it has risen from 71% when we came to office to almost 80% now.
“The number obtaining a level six qualification including highers, has increased from more than a half to two thirds.
‘Progress being delivered’
“For the first time ever more than 30% of pupils are achieving five higher passes and young people achieving skills based qualifications has risen from 47,747 to over 64,000 in 2019. That is the progress being delivered.”
An amendment by Labour education spokesman Iain Gray, designed to voice concern over multi-level teaching, was also passed by the same margin.
An amendment to the motion by Mr Swinney removed the call for the review, replacing it with acknowledgements of work being done by the Scottish Government to implement recommendations of a development report, was voted down by 60 votes to 63.
