Pisa rankings: Worst ever Pisa scores a 'devastating indictment' of SNP's stewardship of Scottish education

Influential OECD study finds record low results for Scottish pupils in maths and science

The SNP’s stewardship of Scottish education has been branded an “abject failure” after the nation slumped to its worst ever scores in world Pisa tests.

The “devastating” decline in standards laid bare by the OECD on Tuesday led to demands for ministers to kick-start their stalled reform programme and urgently invest in Scotland’s schools.

Results from tests taken last year by a sample of 15-year-olds showed the performance of Scotland’s youngsters has dropped by 18 points in maths, 11 points in reading and seven points in science since the last Pisa assessments in 2018.

Pupils in exam

Scottish scores for maths and science represented a record low, and were below the OECD average for the first time, albeit only slightly. Results for reading, meanwhile, returned to their previous lowest level, recorded in 2015.

While Covid was partly blamed for an “unprecedented drop” in performance in the majority of participating countries, the fall in Scotland’s scores was sharper than in England and the UK as a whole, despite similar lockdown rules.

The decline north of the border was also larger than the mean falls in maths, science and reading across the OECD.

Once the best-performing nation in the UK, a downward trend over several Pisa studies leaves Scotland lagging behind England by 21 points in maths, by 20 points in science and by three points in reading.

Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union, said: “Scotland’s schools and teachers continue to strive to provide the best possible learning experiences for all young people, but increasingly they are swimming against a tide of cuts, which threatens now to be a tidal wave unless the Scottish Government makes different decisions on spending and revenue raising to properly fund education.”

She added: "We know that Scotland has amongst the largest average class size and highest teacher class-contact time commitments of countries within the OECD, and those are nettles that the Scottish Government will have to grasp if they are serious about delivering a better educational experience for Scotland’s young people, particularly in the wake of Covid disruption and the ongoing damage done by poverty and inequality.”

Writing for The Scotsman, Edinburgh University emeritus professor Lindsay Paterson said the drop in Scotland’s performance since 2012 in maths was equivalent to the loss of about 16 months of schooling, while in science it was 18 months, and in reading it was eight months.

He highlighted the Scottish figures were “particularly poor” for the highest-attaining pupils, with inequality gaps “getting worse”.

Prof Paterson said the reasons for the decline were complex, but an “inescapable culprit” was Curriculum for Excellence, introduced with cross party support since 2010. “We can now see that this badly thought-out reform has been accompanied throughout by a slide in attainment,” he wrote.

The data published on Tuesday examines the results of nearly 700,000 students, from 81 countries, who took the programme for international student assessment (Pisa) test, which is run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In Scotland, it involved 3,257 students from 117 schools.

Established in 2000, Pisa is the most influential measurement of its kind, with tests carried out every three years, although the 2021 edition was postponed until last year due to the pandemic.

Across the OECD, mean performance fell by ten points in reading, by almost 15 points in maths and by two points in science.

Scotland’s dropped further, by 11 points in reading, by 18 in maths and seven in science. England’s scores were down by nine points in reading, by 12 in maths and by four in science. Wales had the lowest results of the four nations in all three categories.

Referencing recent trends in maths scores, OECD education director Andreas Schleicher said: “I think the last years have not been so great in Scotland.”

Scotland’s scores in 2022 were 471 for maths, 483 for science and 493 in reading. In the first Pisa results from 2000, they were 524 for maths, 515 for science and 526 for reading, although caution is advised with comparisons to the initial years of the study.

Scotland is not ranked by the OECD, but had the same performance in maths in 2022 as Italy, which was 27th highest. The UK as a whole was joint 11th.

Conservative education spokesman Liam Kerr said: “These figures are a devastating indictment of the SNP’s long-term mismanagement of Scottish education. Nicola Sturgeon claimed that education was her number one priority, yet on her watch Scotland’s performance in both maths and science has plummeted to its worst ever level and is way behind that of England.”

Mr Kerr added: “From the attainment gap they have broken their pledge to eradicate, to rising levels of classroom violence, their record is one of abject failure, despite the best efforts of dedicated teachers.”

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie said: “Scotland used to have one of the best education systems in the world, but under the SNP it is now just average.” He added: “A worldwide pandemic doesn’t explain why Scotland is falling down the worldwide education rankings and falling behind England on every measure.”

The OECD said the overall falls in performance could only partially be put down to Covid, with many countries having already been on a downward trend. It found “no clear difference” between education systems with limited school closures and those with longer lockdowns.

Other factors causing the decline across the OECD were said to have included the use of smart phones “for leisure” in schools, a downturn in parental engagement and low levels of teacher support.

In reading, Scotland and England performed similarly for both the best 10 per cent and the weakest 10 per cent of students. But Scottish results were lower than England in maths and science for both groups.

According to the survey results, Scottish social inequality is greater than in England for mathematics and for reading, and the same as in England for science. In maths, social inequality in Scottish attainment has widened since 2012, whereas there has been no change in England.

Meanwhile, amid rising concerns about school violence in Scotland, the Pisa study found the proportion saying they had heard a student threaten to hurt another student in school in the previous four weeks was at 36 per cent in Scotland, 37 per cent in England, 43 per cent in Wales, and 28 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “As is well understood, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our young people and their experience of learning and teaching.

"Pisa demonstrates this impact across the majority of countries participating. Whilst every country in the UK has seen a reduction in its Pisa scores across maths and reading between 2018 and 2022, there will be key learning for the Scottish Government and Cosla to address jointly in responding.”

She said since Pisa was conducted, wider evidence from the 2023 national qualification results and the most recent literacy and numeracy data for primary, show “clear evidence of an ongoing recovery, which we are determined to build on”. Ms Gilruth is due to address the Pisa figures in the Scottish Parliament next week.