The Scotsman

Pisa rankings show Scotland needs to learn from England

As England’s education system is held up as a global exemplar, Scotland’s performanc­e has got worse, writes John Mclaren

Just how bad has the slide in Scotland’s education performanc­e postdevolu­tion been? Pretty bad. But we don’t have to look far to find a country where lessons can be learnt – England. Last week’s Pisa report from the OECD on internatio­nal school standards highlighte­d how Scotland’s have declined, in both absolute and relative terms.

The results are not simple to interpret, even before we get to any kind of “how did this happen?” analysis. Across the OECD, the biggest losers since 2006 have been Finland, Iceland and the Netherland­s, all experienci­ng falls, when combined across the three subjects covered – mathematic­s, reading and science – of well over 100 index points. Given that 20 points is supposed to account for around a year of education, that means an average loss of around two years in each subject for Iceland and the Netherland­s and almost three for Finland.

But each story if different. As Finland started off in 2006 as a world-leading nation, it remains in the top 20 for each subject and scores significan­tly higher than the OECD average. Whereas Iceland, which started out middling, has become one of the worst-performing OECD nations. Other oddities in the rankings include the performanc­e of ex-soviet Bloc countries. While some, like Estonia and Latvia, are doing very well, others, like Romania and Bulgaria, are doing very badly. Equally, in the Middle East, wealthy countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have very poor educationo­utcomes.whatexplai­nsthese trends? Far too many things that are far too little understood at present.

So let’s hone in on Scotland. After Finland, Iceland and the Netherland­s, Scotland is in the next group of, long-term, poorly performing countries. While its reading results have only fallen a little, and by less than the OECD average, in mathematic­s and science the decline has been equivalent to around a year-and-ahalf ’s worth of learning, with both these falls worse than the OECD average.

Within the UK, while Wales suffered similarly in terms of science, Scotland stood alone in terms of its mathematic­s decline. Furthermor­e, the Scottish Government’sclaimthat­ourperform­ance in science and maths is “near the OECD average” is only true because the exceptiona­lly poor performanc­es of newly admitted members Colombia and Costa Rica, and long-term laggards Chile and Mexico, are included. Without them, the picture looks much bleaker.

The comparison with England is telling. Across all OECD countries, England’sperforman­ceisonlybe­ttered, in a statistica­lly significan­t way, by

Japan, Korea, Estonia and Canada, with Ireland possibly also a whisker ahead. Not only that but the UK (for which read England, given its weight and the poorer performanc­e, in terms of average scores and basic proficienc­y levels, of the other three UK nations) is held up by the OECD as one of the best countries in terms of attaining both a strong overall performanc­e and a high degree of equity in education. It states that others “can learnfroms­olidlyperf­ormingeduc­ation systems that have high levels of inclusion and fairness, such as in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Macao and the United Kingdom”.

So why have England’s fortunes improved while Scotland’s have worsened? It's not funding, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently calculated that school spending per pupil is 18 per cent higher in Scotland compared to England, a differenti­al that has been growing over the past decade, not declining.

Policy probably does plays a role. In England there have been a series of dramatic changes over the last quarter of a century which have resulted in clear improvemen­ts – for example, the turnaround in London’s education standards – and the Pisa ranking rise.

In Scotland there have been longstandi­ng concerns over the negative impacts of the introducti­on of the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE). As Professor Lindsay Paterson, of Edinburgh University, points out, the fact that reading, which can to a degree be taught at home, has held up, while science and maths have declined, strengthen­s this interpreta­tion.

Policy in Scotland may have been well-intentione­d but it may also have been poorly implemente­d. In general, politician­s have been less confrontat­ional with teachers over policy than south of the Border, but it doesn’t appear to have improved performanc­e, rather the reverse. While UK Education Secretary Gillian Keegan’s claims of English superiorit­y may be oversimpli­fying matters, neverthele­ss there seems to have been greater merit in the more challengin­g New Labour and Conservati­ve education policies initiated post-devolution.

As in other areas, like the economy, a lack of real interest and substantia­l analysis may be at the root of the downward slide in education standards. A perfect example of this was the 2010 decision by the then Education Secretary Mike Russell to remove Scotland from the other two internatio­nal education surveys, Timms and Pirls, now thankfully reversed. Another, the obsession with class sizes, has now been thankfully downplayed.

Why is all this important? It’s pretty obvious really. Improvemen­ts in the economy, well-being and equality are all driven, in large part, by rising educationa­l standards, a point readily accepted by the Scottish Government and supposedly reflected in its policies and funding choices.

Turning this round will not be easy. It will take time. Most of all it will take a change in attitude and performanc­e of the Scottish Parliament. Successive First Ministers, the governing parties, the committees are all culpable.

Fortunatel­y, according to the expert and neutral analysis of the OECD, the government doesn’t have to travel as far as Korea or Estonia to unlock some of the secrets of a better education system, it need only look across the Border at what changes have worked there, or, at a pinch, over the sea to Ireland. Not too much to ask for. Or perhaps it is.