Congratulations to pupils in my parliamentary regions of East and West Dunbartonshire, and everyone else across Scotland, who received their SQA results yesterday.
I hope all their hard work and dedication has paid off and they got the grades they were looking for.
Their achievements are all the more impressive because they have gone through a difficult few years. The Covid pandemic was a huge disruption to children’s education.
I believe young people who achieve excellent grades in Scotland just now deserve to be especially commended - because they are achieving success against the backdrop of an education system in decline under the SNP.
Those who succeed have done so in spite of the system, not because of it.
The current graduating students have been educated under an SNP Government from P1 all the way through school until they leave.
They have had to put up with severe cuts to teacher numbers. At one time, there were 3000 fewer teachers in our schools than when the SNP came to power. Under pressure from my party, they have increased those numbers, but there are still hundreds fewer educators than in 2007.
Young people have also had to navigate a flawed curriculum. The SNP changed Scotland’s curriculum, which had served us well for many years, and moved towards a system that doesn’t put much value on knowledge. The new curriculum has been bogged down by bureaucracy, with teachers facing mountains of guidance to try and understand how the new system is meant to work. The negative impact on students is clear when even their teachers struggle to understand what the outcomes and objectives of their courses are meant to be.
But worst of all, disadvantaged pupils in Scotland have not had the necessary help from the SNP Government to help them get ahead, despite the challenges they have faced growing up.
Way back in 2016, seven years ago, the SNP promised young people from the most deprived areas that they would close the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils.
But this year’s results, published yesterday, showed that the attainment gap is just as wide as ever.
And worse than that, it is getting wider. Year-on-year, the attainment gap has grown. The SNP’s reforms have made no progress for many years - and now they are actually making the situation worse.
When pupils from deprived backgrounds don’t get the help they need, how is our education system supposed to produce fair outcomes and deliver opportunities for all?
I know from my own parliamentary areas, in East and West Dunbartonshire, that there remains a substantial gulf between the achievements of pupils from the least and most deprived backgrounds. That’s not the fault of those young people, it’s a fault of the system.
The SNP’s handling of our education has been abysmal. They have let generations of pupils down.
That’s why young Scots who did achieve top grades in recent years should be especially proud because they have done so with a government that mismanages our schools and limits opportunities for the next generation.
Although, if you are one of the pupils who didn’t get the grades you wanted, don’t worry about it. There is no wrong path.
There is not only one way to achieve your ambitions. There are so many other options for young people who want to get ahead, from first-class college courses to outstanding apprenticeships or even going straight into employment.
As long as you work hard, you should be proud of whatever you are going to do now. There are many paths to success, if you’re prepared to put in the effort.
