Rennie speaks during education debate

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament during a debate on the performance of the education system, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said:  

“We are not really debating whether the PISA results were bad. The First Minister has already admitted that they are. They are the worst ever.  

“We are behind England on reading, on maths and on science.  

“The last set of reforms have not worked. The fundamental weakness was that the government didn’t really know what was wrong with Scottish education before it embarked on those reforms. And if you don’t know what’s wrong, I don’t know how you can fix it.  

“We need to acknowledge that the Curriculum for Excellence has not delivered on its promise. Everyone agrees with the principles, but the implementation just has not worked.  

“On behaviour, teachers were insulted last week with the inference that they were the problem and they required to be retrained. We need to change the guidance on discipline so there are clear boundaries and consequences. We also need the resources and the specialist back-up to make this work.  

“We need an education secretary who is on it.”