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Over the past ten years I have, on occasion, criticised the SNP’s handling of Scottish education.
Sometimes this has been about policy, like imposing pointless standardised tests, or failing to address the persistent disadvantage faced by pupils in remote small towns, or backing the use of the 2020 exam algorithm that suppressed the grades of pupils from the poorest areas to protect the advantages of wealthy families.
Other times it has been about presentation or, to be even more accurate, spin – think, for example, about the various ways in which the party desperately avoided being judged on their record for education, including – but not limited to – subtle shifts in language intended to move the goalposts in their favour.
I have, on more than one occasion, argued that the SNP was putting politics before pupils, and I don’t recall ever having the slightest reason to retract or apologise for that accusation.
I am also an unrepentant, card-carrying cynic when it comes to the behaviour of politicians and the people who work for them.
But despite all of that, somehow even I was surprised by the levels of shamelessness on display following the publication of the latest education statistics this week.
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The government issued five press releases in seven minutes, the last of which was headlined: “Delivering educational improvements.”
Jenny Gilruth went on the radio to extoll the successes of her government. She was spinning so hard I started to worry that she’d throw off the earth’s rotation.
The party and various prominent politicians also started posting to social media with pre-prepared and eye-catching graphics. This campaign was pinned on three main claims:
- that attendance has gone up
- that Scotland now has more teachers
- that literacy and numeracy rates are at a record high
In each case, the simple statement being presented to people is technically correct – but also, to varying degrees, misleading. Let me explain.
On attendance, it is true that the data shows an improvement on last year.
How much of an improvement? Seven tenths of one percentage point.
But a win’s a win, right?
As for the claim that teacher numbers have gone up, this is absolutely the case.
And what exactly was the increase? 63.
Not 63 percent. Or 63 percentage points.
63 teachers.
For the whole of Scotland.
That works out to an increase of about 0.03 teachers per school. I’m sure your kids will really notice the difference any day now, especially if they live in one of the two-thirds of councils where teacher numbers actually fell this year.
And there’s even more to this one, because as we have already revealed, the new figures actually show that the SNP has completely and categorically failed to keep not one, not two, but three distinct promises when it comes to teacher numbers.
The party pledged to restore those numbers to 2023 levels, to hire enough teachers to cut class contact time by ninety minutes per week, and to ensure we had an additional 3,500 teachers in total compared to 2020 levels. It’s not just that they missed those targets – they didn’t even come close to achieving them, and are now hoping that you’ve just forgotten all about it.
Amazingly, though, it still gets worse because one of the specific social media claims made by the party is tip-toeing right up to the line of being a blatant and completely unacceptable lie.
In one especially egregious post that was brought to my attention, the SNP says that we now have “teachers at record numbers”. It goes on to clarify that “teacher numbers remain at their highest level in over a decade”.
That’s simply not true.
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This year, teacher numbers are lower than they have been in each of the last four years. The government’s own data clearly shows this.
Teacher numbers are certainly higher than they were a decade ago (a point that Jenny Gilruth tried to cling to while talking to the media) but that’s only because the SNP had overseen a massive decline in staff levels since taking office in 2007.
As for the claims that literacy and numeracy rates are at record levels, that too is true, but the statement is an awfully long way from the whole story.
It is fair to say that achievement levels and attainment gaps for literacy and numeracy are both going in the right directions, but progress is incredibly slow. As The Herald has highlighted, the average gaps have come down by just 2.5 percentage points in nearly ten years, and remain in double figures, despite the SNP promising to ‘eliminate’ them.
But it’s still the best performance on record, right?
Sure – but how far back do you think those records go?
Talking about 'record highs' is, clearly, supposed to make people think that these are the best figures we’ve seen in decades, perhaps even generations.
The truth is that these numbers only go back to 2017, because the SNP government changed the measurement system that was in place before that and made sure that proper comparisons to earlier years became completely impossible.
If you were an SNP supporter, you might try to argue that none of this is really relevant. Progress is progress, you might say, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? Why do you hate Scotland etc. etc. etc.?
But promises are also promises, and this government has completely failed to deliver on them. That is supposed to matter.
What’s more, people deserve the truth, not endless and entirely disrespectful spin that treats them like idiots.
Sadly, it seems that this is just too much to expect.
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