Reading and literacy have always been one of the great strengths of Scottish education.

Our nation’s writers, journalists, poets and great academics are testament to our belief in the power of the word.

You are reading this article in a national broadsheet because one of the results of this historic culture of literacy is for Scotland to have its own print media. Reading underpins all learning.

The latest Pisa results, the international survey into reading, science, and maths published yesterday show progress.

Reading performance of Scotland’s 15-year-olds is now above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, with only five of 36 OECD countries performing statistically significantly better.

There is great strength in Scottish education and these results are a clear sign that our education reforms are working.

Improvement in our education system is being driven by great teachers and well-supported pupils, who are driving forward our unrelenting focus on reducing inequity in education through the Scottish Attainment Challenge and Pupil Equity Fund.

Our investment is now paying dividends. This positive performance is reflected in our own attainment data which shows that 90 per cent of S3 pupils achieved Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Third Level in literacy or better in 2017-18, with 46% attaining at CfE Fourth Level.

Improving the education and life chances of all our children and young people – irrespective of their background – is one of the defining missions of this Government.

We know that closing the attainment gap will take time but the Pisa results are further evidence that what we are doing is having a tangible effect.

Now, Pisa tells us that the socioeconomic background of pupils in Scotland has less impact on performance across reading, maths and science than it did in 2009.

This corroborates other evidence, including the reduced gap in attainment between the most deprived and least deprived pupils at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 since 2009/10.

The £750 million we are investing over the course of this Parliament through the Attainment Scotland Fund is working and is having a positive impact on children adversely affected by poverty in our schools.

Scotland’s maths and science scores have stabilised and are on a par with the OECD average.

We now need to see the kind of improvement that we see in reading in these areas too. That is the challenge that we have already accepted and we have put in place a number of interventions to support maths and science which will further support attainment in these subjects.

Good progress has been made with delivery of our five-year Stem strategy, with the roll-out of career-long professional learning grants and new online resources for teachers.

The impact of it will only just be beginning to be felt on the ground and we will continue to push for the improvements that we know can be made.

We are continuing to progress the implementation of the Making Maths Count report recommendations, alongside Education Scotland and other key organisations.

These include the establishment of Maths Week Scotland, and the publication by Education Scotland of a thematic review on numeracy and mathematics which shows what is working and how we can improve.

It will help as we move on to the next phase of driving up standards in Scotland’s schools. When the last set of Pisa results were published for 2015 we were clear on the need for reform, and we are making significant progress in delivering our reform agenda.

The advice that I have recently received from the International Council of Education Advisers has been clear: small, steady, incremental gains are evident and need to continue in order to deliver sustainable improvement in any education system.

It is important to recognise that while Pisa is being published now, the results are based on testing undertaken a year ago. Since then we have agreed the teachers’ pay deal, published the Headteachers’ Charter, provided significant funding to the Regional Improvement Collaboratives, and seen further increases in teacher numbers.

Pisa is an important international comparator study. It is based on a sample survey of 15 years-olds and is an important part of a wider evidence base on performance in Scottish education. Next week we will publish our most comprehensive set of data and evidence on performance in Scottish education, through the National Improvement Framework Interactive Evidence Report.

The data will inform the 2020 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, which serves as the single, definitive plan for securing educational improvement in Scotland.

We will consider this wide range of data and evidence, including the Pisa results, with our partners and identify how we can continue to make improvements where they are needed.

We remain resolutely committed to our agenda – a bold and ambitious programme of reform and to advancing improvements to ensure excellence and equity throughout our education system, a system that places learners at its heart.

John Swinney is Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary