New education secretary John Swinney has faced calls to slam the brakes on national tests over claims they risked “repeating Thatcherite failures of the past”.
The Deputy First Minister, who was parachuted in to save Scottish education in the cabinet reshuffle, is on an early collision course with parents, who have lashed out at proposals to make primary school pupils sit three tests lasting one-hour teach.
Mr Swinney said they are not tests but standardised assessments pitched at an “age appropriate” level for children.
The Perthshire North MSP had a mountain of work on his desk on the first day of his role, as Labour called on him to stop cuts to education and the Conservatives demanded he review the controversial Named Persons law.
Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott said Mr Swinney must review the “remorseless drive to national testing and school league tables”.
“Asking five-year-old children to take hour-long tests is the wrong education policy and risks repeating Thatcherite failures of the past,” he said.
“John Swinney can reset the clock. I encourage him to hold fire on national testing of school children and national school league tables. Instead he should review his government’s approach.”
Iain Gray, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, wrote to Mr Swinney demanding more investment to education after his budget included hundreds of million of pounds of cuts to education.
“As the finance secretary since 2007 you must be well aware that education and skills budgets were cut by 10% over the past nine years,” he said.
“As education secretary you must now look to stop these cuts and begin to repair the damage they have caused in schools, colleges and universities.”
Mr Swinney said as well as investing £5bn annually through councils, the Government is expanding the war chest for attainment ineqaulity by an extra £750 million over the next five years.
The Tories have called on Mr Swinney to rework the Named Person policy, which assigns a health worker or teacher to each child.
Liz Smith, a Fife MSP for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “I hope John Swinney will press the reset button and accept that people’s concerns are genuine and based in fact.”
On the new tests, Mr Swinney said: “No child at primary school will sit an hour-long test. Ministers have no wish to return to stressful testing in Scotland’s schools for our children.
“We are introducing assessments, which will be age appropriate, and will allow teachers to tailor learning for each individual child.”
Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon’s cabinet, which also includes Derek Mackay as finance secretary, was given parliamentary approval.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives leader, then revealed her shadow cabinet.
Ms Smith and Perth-based Murdo Fraser retain their roles as education and finance spokespersons respectively.
Newcomers Peter Chapman, who represents the North East, takes the rural economy brief, while Highlands and Islands MSP Douglas Ross gets the justice role.
