In 2016, when international test results for school pupils were released, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: ‘Scotland used to be a beacon of excellence. It’s not anymore.’ Ten years later, things are worse. In the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test results in reading, maths and science, taken by 15-year-old pupils last year, Scottish pupils’ average scores slipped in reading, from 493 to 488, and maths, from 471 to 467. (Scotland’s maths score was 491 in 2015.) Science scores rose by eight points to 491 – but pupils were around a full year behind their English counterparts. Performance in all subjects was, according to the Scottish government’s report, ‘significantly below that achieved in a number of earlier Pisa cycles’. Rather than being one of the best in the world, SNP education secretary Màiri McAllan has been reduced to boasting that Scotland’s education system is ‘competitive by international standards’ and ‘above the OECD average on four measures out of five’.
England got the best average test results among the four home nations in all three subjects. In science, England’s score jumped from 503 to 516, worth around half a year of schooling. Maths and reading scores were flat. But flat was a success this year, when pupils’ performance fell in schools around the world. That meant England ranked in the top ten of the 91 countries and economies in all three subjects: eighth for science, ninth for reading, tenth for maths.
