THE reputation of Scotland's education system as one of the best in the world has left a legacy of "complacency" which is preventing future progress.
The claim comes in an interim report by the Commission on School Reform, set up last year by independent think-tanks Reform Scotland and the Centre for Scottish Public Policy.
It states: "Scottish education prides itself on having made a positive contribution to the world through the thinking, discoveries and inventions of those Scots who have had such a powerful global impact over the past three centuries.
"The past successes of Scottish education sometimes induce a sense of complacency. The unfortunate legacy of a long period when Scottish education was the envy of much of the world is that it is difficult for Scots to look objectively at present day realities."
The report – written by educational consultant Keir Bloomer, the commission's chairman – highlights recent figures which suggest Scotland is now slipping behind other countries. International studies show Scotland remains above average in reading and science, but only similar to the average in mathematics.
Mr Bloomer says the greatest threat to Scotland's ability to compete economically is the dramatic rise in the educational performance of China in international comparisons.
His report states: "The narrative that Asian education systems can produce legions of capable factory workers, but only a Western education can develop thinking is invalid. The implications of this both for Scotland's economy and education system are momentous."
The report concludes: "Better overall educational standards in Scotland are essential if we are even to maintain – much less improve upon – our quality of life and our contribution to world development.
"Scotland's schools offer a good and remarkably even quality of education. However, their measured performance is not world-leading.
"It will need to improve continuously and rapidly to keep pace with the challenges of a changing world."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article