Labour accuses minister of ditching class-sizes pledge in policy shake-up

The claim was made after junior education minister Angela Constance set out the Scottish Government’s aim to focus on early intervention and preventive spending as part of a plan to tackle problems at their root.

She said there was only “one chance” to get it right and claimed that politicians must be “serious” about the policy.

Ms Constance said: “When it comes to raising educational attainment, this is not a doom-and-gloom agenda. We have strengths and successes to build upon. Let me reassure the chamber that there is absolutely no room for complacency.”

However, she accepted there must be improvements for children in care and more attention on the gap between low and high achievers.

“For me, the starting point is of course the early years, the foundation years,” Ms Constance told MSPs.

But Labour education spokesman Ken Macintosh underlined the government’s 2007 promise to cut primary class sizes to 18 or fewer among younger pupils.

“Either the government is committed to reducing class sizes because it is the right thing to do, or it is not,” he said.

“I think most people listening to what the minister has had to say would believe that the government has abandoned its policy on class sizes in favour of an emphasis on teacher quality.

“I don’t necessarily disagree with that, but I think we should have some formal recognition that it is the case.”