CRITICS have pointed to fresh evidence of a crisis in Scotland’s education system after a survey showed staff confidence has plummeted at the quango in charge of overseeing schools.

Official results show the number of employees reporting confidence in Education Scotland’s leadership has slumped from 41 per cent in 2014 to just 28% last year.

Opposition figures said the results called into question the SNP’s claim that education is its top priority.

Scottish Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray said: “These results are a blow for Education Secretary John Swinney, who was supposed to deliver on Nicola Sturgeon’s supposed top priority.

“Instead he has failed to come close to reversing years of SNP cuts to school budgets and teachers numbers, and has spent the past two and a half years picking needless fights with teachers on everything from pay, to educational reforms to standardised testing.

“John Swinney was supposed to be a steady hand in the education brief, instead he has repeatedly dropped the ball and it is now clear confidence at Education Scotland is dropping as well.”

The Civil Service People Survey shows a fall in confidence within Education Scotland, which oversees school inspections and the implementation of the curriculum.

Figures show the agency’s performance has worsened across eight out of the nine indicators relating to work satisfaction since 2014, despite rises last year.

Meanwhile, the percentage of those reporting that they have a clear understanding of Education Scotland’s purpose and objectives fell by almost one-fifth between 2014 and 2018.

Just 28% of the quango’s employees said they would recommend it as a great place to work in last year’s survey, compared to 47% in 2014.

Gayle Gorman, chief executive of Education Scotland, said the lead-up to the 2018 survey had seen a “period of significant change for staff”.

She said: “However, it is important to note that results from the 2018 People Survey showed a number of areas that had improved from the previous year, including our ‘engagement index’ score – a measure of employee pride, motivation, attachment and commitment to the organisation – which was 48% positive, an increase of 3% on 2017.

“In addition, results for ‘my work’ and ‘my team’ showed our most positive responses with an increase of 3% from last year for both areas. Positive increases were also seen in staff responses to questions around inclusion and fair treatment (up 3%), leadership and change management (up 9%) and learning and development (up 6%).

“Although the survey showed we were performing better in overall terms, I acknowledge that there is still room for improvement.

“That is why we undertook a major consultation with staff and unions over the past year and have now introduced a new structure; we have a new leadership team in place that I have full confidence in; and we have recently held a significant recruitment exercise to ensure we have the right people in the right places across the organisation.

“Our leadership team is committed to ensuring the issues highlighted in the survey remain at the forefront of our plans.”