 the first item of business is portfolio questions. Our first question is from Tom Arthur. Thank you. I refer members to my register of interests as I'm a member of the MusOrsh Union and a former piano teacher and a former director of the function band. To ask the Scottish Government what contribution music education can make towards closing the attainment gap. Cyrdexlen recognises the value of music education, providing children and young people with opportunities to be creative and imaginative, to experience inspiration and enjoyment, and to develop skills for learning life and work". Through research, we know that there are many wider benefits of music education and musical experiences. It includes promoting healthy lives and cognitive benefits such as increasing attainment, improving levels of literacy and numeracy, and the emotional, social and physical wellbeing of our young people. Given that there is a growing body of evidence suggesting education and music through enhancing development of a student's sound processing abilities, can aid in language development. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that music education for children from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds could play a crucial and cost-effective role in reducing the work gap? I think that there is very clear evidence to support the proposition that Mr Arthur puts forward. I've seen a number of different ventures in schools around the country where there are challenges in engagement with young people, where the medium of music, for example, has been very successful in engaging young people subsequently in a deeper involvement in literacy and numeracy activity. I think that that is an important strand of thinking in our education policy and that is why it forms an increasing part of the Scottish attainment challenge. Ross Thomson To ask the Scottish Government what action it is going to take to address the fall in dedicated primary school music teachers from 2008 to the most recent schools census. I think that it is really important that we focus on the engagement and the involvement of young people in musical education. That will not just be determined by the number of music teachers, dedicated music teachers that we have in primary schools. It will be driven by the degree to which the curriculum for excellence is delivered in a comprehensive and fulfilling way in all educational settings within Scotland. That is the requirement of the curriculum for excellence, that there is a broad range of the educational elements of curriculum for excellence that are delivered for young people. That is the Government's expectation and that is what we look to schools and to local authorities to deliver. Pauline McNeill I thank Tom Arthur for laying that important question. I note that the Journal of Neuroscience recently researched direct evidence that music training has a biological effect on children's developing nervous systems. Further to that, it shows a large improvement in how the brain process speech and reading scores are better than their peers who have not been training in music. Given that a number of local authorities are in our charging fees, I have long been of the view that that is putting many children off taking up a musical instrument. I wonder if the cabinet secretary would consider some kind of dialogue on that with local authorities and interested parties. I would be really upset if a generation of children, because of the austerity of budget cuts, were not getting access to music at a very important time in their lives. I think that it is important that we first acknowledge Pauline McNeill's long-term interest in those questions. I accept fundamentally the point that she makes in terms of the educational value and the educational benefit of music tuition. I want to make it clear to Parliament that it is the duty of every education authority to provide adequate and efficient provision of school education without the payment of fees. That, in relation to my question to Ross Thomson, includes music education into the bargain. I think that that covers music lessons, including when any instrument is taught on a whole-class basis, regardless of who is teaching the class. I think that there is adequate provision within the education system to enable that to be the case. However, if there is more detail that members are concerned about in that respect, I am very happy to engage in that. I see that the long-term benefits of engagement in music education have been of benefit to the attainment of young people in Scotland. Stuart McMillan Thank you, Presiding Officer. However, I agree with the cabinet secretary that music education is not solely the domain of in-house tuition, but also external organisations such as the Welsh Brigade, the Scouts and local organised bands can also play their part in considering how the many organisations that can assist should not be rolled out, bearing in mind some of the points that have been highlighted on today, such as the challenges and engagement. John Swinney I think that Mr McMillan makes a very fair point. There are a whole range of different voluntary organisations in Scotland that provide an enormous amount of opportunity for young people in every locality of the country to participate in music. I think that one of the great joys that many of us have is when we are looking at some of the music competitions around our constituencies and communities that are invariably organisations that are led by voluntary sector representatives. There is a broad cross-section of activity. Of course, we have to make sure that, in every respect, that is encouraged and nurtured and that the regulatory regime that surrounds that is effective in providing the correct amount of safeguarding support for young people, which enables more and more participants to take forward their participation in musical education in Scotland, whether that is formally in the education system or informally in our community. Mr Lyle, will we be pleased to see that we have not overlooked question number two? I thought that you had my apologies. To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish updated guidance on tackling bullying. We have been working for some time on a refreshed national anti-bullying strategy for children and young people, along with a wide range of stakeholders. Our intention is that that will take a holistic approach to addressing that issue. I recently agreed to a question from the Scottish Parliament's Equalities and Human Rights Committee for further engagement by the committee on that issue. I will carefully consider the issues raised by the committee and I will look to publish the guidance in the spring of 2017. Richard Lyle I welcome the news of the forthcoming guidance on bullying. Indeed, we all must do what we can to tackle that important issue. Can I therefore ask the cabinet secretary what work has been undertaken beyond that guidance to tackle bullying in schools? As I said in my original answers to Mr Lyle, there is work under way to refresh that guidance and I am very keen to hear the views and perspectives of the committee on how that can be strengthened. In addition to that activity, the Government's already funding respect me, which is Scotland's anti-bullying service, which provides support to all adults working with children and young people to give them the practical skills and confidence to deal with all types of bullying behaviour. We are committed to updating our internet safety action plan by March 2017 to provide adequate protection in relation to online bullying. We fund Childline to provide confidential advice and information to children and we provided funding to LGBT youth Scotland to work collaboratively with respect me to produce a resource and deliver practice seminars to teachers and other professionals to address the issue of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. The Government continues to engage with a range of other organisations, including Stonewall Scotland and the TIE campaign, on all of those different issues. I give Mr Lyle the assurance that there is a comprehensive approach that has been taken to tackle bullying, which includes refreshing the strategy that is in place, which we hope to be strengthened by wider dialogue and engagement. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First of all, I would like to declare an interest as a current and serving councillor on Aberdeen City Council to ask the Scottish Government whether it will clarify what the education and skills secretary meant by radical reform of Scotland's education system following the publication of the recent PISA results. In my statement to Parliament on 6 December, I reaffirmed the Government's determination to pursue radical change to improve education in Scotland. That change includes a wide range of reforms that we have already introduced, such as the first ever national improvement plan for education and our targeted approach to closing the attainment gap through the Scottish attainment challenge. It also includes reforms to governance arrangements on which we have recently consulted. We will bring forward proposals that will empower teachers, parents and schools to drive forward further improvements in education in due course. Ross Thomson, I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The commission on school reform in its submission advocate empowering schools over staffing appointments and budgets, because all the evidence shows that decisions are best taken closest to where they have in effect and that the greater the autonomy of schools, the better the results. The Government's governance consultation suggests that the devolution of powers is a good thing, but it is not clear on what that will involve. Can the cabinet secretary clarify what the Government really means by greater autonomy and empowering teachers, and if the Government is prepared to take on all the vested interests to achieve it? First, I want to say to Mr Thomson that the Government has just recently closed the governance review, and it is attracted just short of 1,100 submissions that the Government is considering. The Parliament will accept and understand that I will take the necessary time to consider those views, and I have to do justice to those 1,100 submissions, because they cover a range of different perspectives, as I am becoming accustomed to in Scottish education customary in any review of such type. I will take time to do that, but I sense that Mr Thomson is being mildly critical of the Government for not setting out in detail exactly what it plans to do. The Government is considering the views of a range of different stakeholders and will come to a considered conclusion in setting out the response to the governance review. That is the correct way to make policy, and that is how the Government will proceed in this matter. Will the cabinet secretary not agree that the Education and Skills Committee report published earlier this week provides strong evidence that, if radical reform is needed, it is reform of the SQA and Education Scotland? Mr Gray will understand that the Government's consultation on governance included a variety of questions that have been raised about the role of a range of organisations, including the two organisations that he has mentioned, such as Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority. I give Parliament the assurance that all of those issues will be part of my consideration of those points. I make the fundamental point to Parliament that, if there is as much concern across Parliament about the performance of Scottish education—I heard that being expressed in the debate last Thursday—it is right that I should pose hard questions about everybody involved in Scottish education. If local authorities are responsible for the delivery of education in Scotland, which is their statutory responsibility, I am right that, if Parliament is as concerned about education as it says it is, I should be asking hard questions about local government as well, because that is where the performance of Scottish education is at its most acute. I have asked the questions in an open fashion in the Government's review. I will take the time to consider the issues that have been raised, but I want to make it clear to Parliament that I will be asking hard questions of all organisations involved in Scottish education to make sure that we have an education system that can deliver on the expectations of every young person in Scotland and their parents, carers and supporters within our country. I commend the hard question approach to the issue. One of the hard questions that the cabinet secretary might wish to consider is of the curriculum for excellence management board, whom we heard this morning on the education committee, and its inability to answer the question of who was responsible for the implementation of curriculum for excellence. When he is going through his review of those matters, will he undertake to make sure that parents and teachers in particular know who is responsible and for what in the future of the education system across our country? I will look very carefully at the official report of this morning's proceedings. I was not able to follow all of the proceedings myself, but I will look carefully at that. The point that Mr Scott is asking this question gives me an opportunity to rehearse the answer that I gave in closing the debate on Thursday, which I understand—for obvious reasons—that Mr Scott was not able to be here, but it is all on the official report if he wants to have a look at it. My point to Parliament last Thursday was that the curriculum for excellence management board involves, if my member says that we are right, about 20 organisations that are brought together to try to create consensus and agreement on the implementation of curriculum for excellence. That is the model that has been customary to be taken forward in Scottish education, of bringing together everybody to try to achieve consensus. That is my answer to Mr Scott's question about who is ultimately responsible. Nothing in the implementation of curriculum for excellence has been forced upon anybody else. Everybody has agreed with it as we have gone along with the exception that, on one occasion, the EIS asked for a delay to the implementation of the examinations by one year. That is the only occasion in which a minister took a decision contrary to a unanimous view of the curriculum for excellence management board. My answer to Mr Scott—I am sorry for it being a long answer, but it is complicated territory—is that we have drawn together in the curriculum for excellence management board all of the relevant stakeholders to seek consensus on the implementation of curriculum for excellence, and ministers have respected those views. That is my explanation of how curriculum for excellence has been implemented. I told the Education and Skills Committee in December that, as part of the Government's review, I am looking afresh at those decisions, because there are a few things that I have done in the course of the past few months in which I have been the education secretary to push things at a faster pace and to take decisions that might have taken longer. I have done that because I felt that it was necessary. Perhaps we need a sharper approach to decision making than we have had in the past, and that is one of the issues that I am currently addressing. Apologies to James Dornan, but we move on to question 4, Angus MacDonald. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Falkirk Council regarding the attainment Scotland fund. We are in regular contact with Falkirk Council who have received £413,663 from the attainment Scotland fund. I thank the Deputy First Minister for his reply. He will be aware of concerns raised by Falkirk Council's education services and their submission to the Scottish Government's consultation on the governance review regarding the potential for additional bureaucracy for schools following the recently announced additional attainment fund monies. Will the cabinet secretary take on board those concerns and ensure that schools are not required to implement cumbersome additional monitoring and reporting mechanisms and ensure that existing accountability arrangements and systems are utilised? We have to take account of the fact that funding is going to be going directly to schools to enable them to have a sharper decision making about how the monies can be used effective. I have seen in Falkirk Council the product of decisions taken at school level about how that improves the way in which educational performance is delivered in individual schools. That public money has to be properly accounted for, but I give Mr MacDonald the assurance that I do not want to have accountability mechanisms that are any more onerous than are required. However, I do have to have accountability mechanisms in place that will satisfy the scrutiny of Parliament and the Auditor General in relation to the utilisation of public money. I ask the cabinet secretary what evidence he could provide, which would reassure my constituents in Falkirk that the proposed new regional education boards would protect and enhance local accountability in terms? The issue about educational collaboration across local authority areas and what has been discussed in the governance review about regional education boards is about ensuring that the best expertise is available to enhance the educational provision of individual schools and for individual young people in areas. There is enough published information from Education Scotland and from the Accounts Commission, which highlights the fact that not all of our local authorities are able to add value to the educational provision of individual schools. That is evidence that I do not think that I can ignore as education secretary, which is why I am encouraging collaboration and co-operation between authorities through those regional education bodies. I stressed to Parmont, I stressed to Liz Smith when I answered her question on the launch of the governance review. That is not an extra layer of bureaucracy. It is a collaborative area to improve performance so that every school in the country can have as much chance to have education improved as a consequence of the interaction of education bodies. In the North of Scotland, the Northern Alliance, there is a very good example of how local authorities have come together to provide services jointly across that area to tackle particular issues in relation to numeracy and literacy and staff shortages. There is an argument for that, and that is part of what I am considering in the governance review. To ask the Scottish Government how physical education is helping to narrow the attainment gap. Physical education can have a positive impact on children's health, educational attainment and life chances. It encourages the development of both movement and thinking skills and, in doing so, contributes to and reinforces learning across the curriculum. I am delighted that 98 per cent of primary and secondary schools across Scotland are providing at least two hours or two periods of PE per week. Health and wellbeing substantial importance is reflected in its position at the centre of the curriculum and at the heart of children's learning, as well as the central focus of the Scottish attainment challenge and the national improvement framework for education. Along with literacy and numeracy, it is one of the three core areas that are the responsibility of all staff in schools. Jeremy Balfour Can I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer? We all agree that sport can help to narrow the attainment gap. A report by Reform Scotland recently discovered that some local authorities, including some within the Malawian region, are charging for sports activities that form part of the active schools initiative. Would the cabinet secretary agree with me that, given that the activities are co-ordinated through a Scottish-wide organisation, it seems strange that there is a difference in charge and practice and that pupils from poorer backgrounds are more likely to miss out as a result of the postcode lottery? On the specific point about the charging arrangements, if Mr Balfour will forgive me, I will take the opportunity to delve into the detail of that and to consider whether there is an issue that needs to be addressed. However, in general, I would say that the Government is taking a number of steps to encourage greater levels of physical activity. I mentioned in my original answer the performance that is taking place in 98 per cent of primary and secondary schools, where at least two hours or two periods of pee are being provided each week. We have other additions to that, such as the daily mile, which has engaged Scottish schools very significantly in that process. I would also point out for completeness that later this month I will meet Kenny Logan to hear more about the step programme that he has taken forward from which there is a great deal of active interest. I reassure Mr Balfour that the Government is strongly encouraging the importance of exercise and health and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum and the education of young people, and I will look specifically at the issue that he has raised with me. Thank you. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Glasgow Colleges regional board and the city of Glasgow college regarding their relationship with each other. Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville. The Scottish Government regularly meets the chair of Glasgow Colleges regional board, and the Government also receives regular updates from the funding council on Glasgow colleges. John Mason. I thank the minister for that answer. I wonder if she agrees that the resources for Glasgow colleges must be fairly shared between all three of them. The two more community-based colleges, which is Clyde and Kelvin, should not be disadvantaged just because the city of Glasgow shouts louder and has a louder voice. The allocation of resources to Glasgow colleges is, of course, a matter for the Glasgow Colleges regional board and the funding council, which have well-established systems in place for allocating those resources. All three colleges, the regional board and the funding council are going through a new process at the moment, and that is the correct and proper way of progressing. However, I can reassure the member that the sole purpose of that is to ensure delivery of high-quality further education throughout Glasgow. Liz Smith. Thank you. Minister, on 16 November I received an answer to a parliamentary question that confirmed that the Scottish Government does not hold the information to confirm the remuneration level that is made to the chair of Glasgow Colleges regional board. On 1 December, I received a letter from John Kemp that confirmed that the Scottish funding council does not have that information either. Could the cabinet secretary explain why neither the Scottish Government nor the Scottish funding council have that information? It is very important that we have transparency and a full understanding about the system that we are setting up with the regional boards. If Liz Smith is not satisfied with the answer that she has had back from John Kemp, I am more than happy to look into that correspondence from the funding council and get back to her directly. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to close the skills gap. Scotland's labour market strategy recognises that a skilled workforce will be a key component of a more successful and inclusive economy in the years ahead of our enterprising skills review, which is currently proceeding in partnership with stakeholders in the relevant agencies and aims to bring greater coherence and focus to the delivery of our skills support. That will focus on fully aligning and co-ordinating activity across the agencies to maximise their collective impact in meeting the needs of the labour market. Skills Development Scotland has taken a strong leadership role to understand the skills need of the labour market through improved regional skills assessments and skills investment plans. That information base will be vital in aligning future skills provision with business needs. A survey by the CBI highlighted that 69 per cent of Scottish businesses are not confident about filling high-skilled jobs in the future. That is supported by the IPPR in its report, Equipping Scotland for the Future, which highlighted funding as a challenge facing the skills system in the future. Will the Scottish Government demonstrate its commitment to skills funding by increasing the longevity for funding for developing young workforce to allow greater sustainability and to increase the number of apprenticeships to 35,000 and to tackle the skills gap so evident in the south of Scotland and across Scotland? Picking up on the last point, Ms Hamilton will be aware that the UK Government of her political party introduced the apprenticeship levy without prior consultation with the Government as having responsibility for skills policy. In response to that, we undertook a consultation and one of the questions that we asked was whether or not our target of 30,000 modern apprenticeship starts by the year 2020 was the correct one. The clear message back from businesses, including the CBI, was that that was correct and not to go further, so we have moved forward on that basis and it is a target that we will work towards. In relation to the IPPR report and the concerns of the CBI, I am always willing to engage with IPPR and the CBI—indeed, I just met the CBI yesterday. I will always be willing to discuss those matters with them, but I can tell Ms Hamilton that the CBI very much welcomed our planned introduction of a flexible workforce development fund that I set out in our budget, so I hope that she will be voting for the Scottish Government's budget when it moves ahead. Colin Beattie Will the minister advise on any progress being made in decreasing the studying of STEM-related subjects beyond the school? That is a very important area for us as an Administration. We know that increasingly in the future it will be an area that will be important for our future economic growth. Now there is significant emphasis in increasing the number of apprenticeship opportunities in the STEM Ieidwch i'w ddechrau i'w siaradau yn ei cynnig i gyllid ymlaen i'w parlymydd. Felly, os i'n ddifall, rydw i'r ddaf yn gweithio i ddigonol i'r sektai. Daniel Johnson Rachael Hamilton yn cymryd i ddweud i ddylch chi'n ei ddweud y sylwyr. funding of the skills system. Indeed, one of the most important factors in closing the skills gap is supporting young people from low-income families to stay on at school or college. Why is the Scottish Government cutting the budget by £10 million? That is 25 per cent from the EMA that is laid out in the draft budget. What will the impact be of that measure? I urge Mr Johnson to look a bit more closely at the budget. What we have said in the budget is a demand led-elm of the budget, and we will meet every single requirement as a consequence of claims made against EMA. If there is a claim for EMA, we will meet it. To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce a decision regarding tuition fee support for EU students applying for courses for 2018-19. Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville Despite the UK Government failing as yet to provide adequate reassurance for EU nationals on their immigration status after the point at which the UK leaves the EU, we have provided a clear commitment regarding the continuation of free tuition for eligible EU students applying to Commence study in Scotland in 2017-18. In order to plan for 2018-19 and beyond, we continue to urge the UK Government to provide assurances that the immigration status and the rights of EU nationals currently living and studying in Scotland are who wish or to study or work here in the future will not change. A lack of clarity on the UK Government policy in this area is hampering planning. Against this backdrop, it is difficult to point on an exact date in which we will be in a position to decide the future policy on this issue, but I can confirm that officials will discuss this matter with representatives of Scotland's universities in the near future. Mark Ruskell I thank the minister for that very clear statement. We obviously share the desire to see more talented EU citizens come to this country to contribute to our academia and our society and it is jazzed with the policy of Westminster. On the issue of the timescale, it is clear now that universities are drawing up prospectuses for next year. They need that clarity by April. Is there anything that we can do to try and force the Westminster Government to give clarity over the immigration status at that point, then that would be obviously very beneficial to those EU citizens who are considering coming to Scotland but do not yet have clarity over free tuition or indeed their immigration status. The Minister for Education and Skills I think that it would be fair to say that it would be good if we could force some clarity from the UK Government on this and on many other issues. I have a copy of Theresa May's speech from yesterday here in which she gives no clarity to the EU nationals or indeed to the higher education sector in general, which is a concern. However, the member can be reassured that both my officials and myself are in almost constant dialogue with the universities around this. Indeed, the other interests in the sector that they are concerned about with regarding Brexit, whether it is research EU students or indeed EU researchers and academic staff, which is also important. 9. Mike Rumbles To ask the Scottish Government when it will next meet representatives from Aberdeenshire Council's education and children's services. Scottish Government officials met with Aberdeenshire Council education and children's services yesterday as part of a meeting of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland. Last month, Aberdeenshire Council had 42 teaching vacancies. While Aberdeenshire City reported 96 full-time equivalent posts vacant, does the minister understand that his Government needs to provide the resources to attract adequate numbers of teachers to the north-east and change the situation where both councils constantly receive among the worst level of resource funding from the Scottish Government? As Mr Rumbles will know, the Government has put funding in place to protect the people-teacher ratios. We are working with councils that are part of the Northern Alliance to look at, for example, expanding opportunities for teacher education places. We are also looking at new routes into teaching, including, for example, offering opportunities to individuals working in the oil and gas sector, who have been recently made redundant and who wish to perhaps look at teaching as a future opportunity to offer routes in there. We are exploring a variety of different routes for individuals to get into teaching within the north-east of Scotland. However, if Mr Rumbles has any constructive suggestions to bring to the table, Government will obviously be more than happy to hear from him. To ask the Scottish Government what has happened to full-time equivalent teacher numbers in schools in Aberdeenshire Councils from 2007 to the present and how this has affected pupil-to-teacher ratios. As Mr Burnett will know, and as I have just highlighted to Mr Rumbles, we recognise the pressures that exist in the north-east of Scotland in relation to teaching, recruitment and retention. That is why we have been working closely with those councils, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, to ensure that there are additional places for teacher training, to ensure that there are new opportunities for individuals to get into teaching. Again, if individuals such as Mr Burnett have constructive suggestions to bring to the table about how we could address those matters further, Government will be more than happy to listen to them. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce teacher workload. Our education delivery plan made clear the Scottish Government's commitment to tackle bureaucracy and address excessive teacher workload. We issued a definitive statement on curriculum for excellence to all teachers, setting out clearly what they are and are not required to do. Our measures inspectors also carried out a focused review of the demands placed on schools by each local authority in relation to curriculum for excellence. We announced concrete proposals to address workload issues, including the decision to remove mandatory unit assessments for national 5, higher and advanced higher qualifications. The removal of mandatory units will significantly reduce workload and liberate teachers to focus on teaching their pupils. My priority in all of this is to free up teachers to concentrate on learning and teaching. Enable Scotland research found that 62 per cent of subject teachers have experienced anxiety due to the lack of support to help those with additional support needs. Moreover, there has been a drop in the number of special schools teachers of 9 per cent since this Government took power in 2007. What action will be taken to stop teachers being overworked? Does the Scottish Government agree that teachers, whether mainstream or in special schools, deserve better? A number of issues in Mr Cameron's question. The first is about the general issue of reducing teacher workload to enable teachers to concentrate on learning and teaching, which is my absolute priority and which I have demonstrated very swift action to ensure that that is the case. The second point is in relation to what is the changing mix of educational provision within Scotland. Mr Cameron will know that there is a presumption in favour of mainstream education for all young people, with the exception that where that is not appropriate for young people, they should be educated in appropriate surroundings. That has led to a significant change in the profile of education, the reduction in the number of special schools and the much greater integration of young people into our mainstream education. I accept the point that teachers must be adequately trained and supported to provide for the educational needs of all young people within their educational setting. I am very much engaged with the Enable Scotland research on this question, which I think is thoughtful research. When I discussed the issue with Enable Scotland before the turn of the year, it made it clear to me that their argument was not about more money in the system, but about more effective training and support to enable the fulfilment of young people's educational needs. The Government is committed to ensuring that that is the case. There is a stark contrast between the SNP Government, which has invested to maintain teacher numbers and reduced workload, compared to the actions of Donald Cameron's North Tory colleagues in the UK Government, who said that mainstream schools in England should cut their workforce by £1.7 billion over the next three years. What are the cabinet secretary's views on that? The Parliament will be familiar with the measures that the Government has put in place to enhance the resources that are available to the delivery of education in schools within Scotland. The finance secretary announced an extra £120 million to support the Scottish attainment challenge, higher than what the Government committed to in its manifesto, to ensure that we can put the resources where they need to be to support the attainment and the performance of young people. The Government in Scotland believes in investing in education, and that is what our proposals are aimed to do. Bruce Crawford To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it provided towards the building of a new St Margaret's primary school in Cowie. Through Scotland's schools for the future programme, the Scottish Government has provided Stirling Council with £2.6 million towards the construction of St Margaret's primary school in Cowie. I can tell him that I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of a fantastic new primary and nursery school in Cowie on Friday. Can I ask the cabinet secretary that he is aware that it is official opening of yet another new school, St Nynion's primary, in Stirling on 27 January? Can he tell me how much funding the Scottish Government is contributing to the building of a St Nynion's primary and what other funding for school buildings in the Stirling Council area that the Scottish Government has provided since 2011? I am delighted that the Government's construction programme is providing such opportunities to keep Mr Crawford busy on his constituency Fridays, and it is delightful that there are such happy occasions. I can confirm that St Nynion's primary school received £5 million from the Scottish Government in the award of Stirling Council. Through the same programme, the Scottish Government has awarded Stirling Council with funding of £1.9 million towards the refurbishment of Riverside primary school. That is all part of the wider programme of investment that the Government has taken forward to support the development of first-class educational facilities in Scotland. 12. Iain Gray To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns expressed by the Royal Society of Edinburgh regarding an absence of a clear rationale for the school governance review. Presiding Officer, our education system has many strengths with thousands of excellent teachers and hardworking children and young people actively involved in taking forward that education system. The system also faces challenges. The disappointing programme for international student assessment results, published in December, reinforced the need for reform. The pieces of results are consistent with the 2014 Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy, which told us that we needed to do more to make our education system among the best in the world. That is why I am committed to empowering teachers, parents and schools to drive improvements in education and why I have launched the education governance review. We ought to every child and young person in Scotland to ensure that our system supports them to achieve the best possible outcome. Iain Gray The RSE did not say that it did not believe that reform was required in the education system. Rather, it said that the school's governance review missed the mark. It is not just the RSE, is it? The EIS, the SSTA, the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, the Scottish Parents Forum, COSLA, SOLAS and even the SNP-led Dundee Council have all, in one way or another, made submissions to the review, queering the whole thrust of the review itself. When parents, teachers, headteachers, academics and even your own counsellors tell you that you are barking up the wrong tree, is it not time to think again? Iain Gray confused two things. He confused it in his response to my initial answer, where he said that the RSE did not question the need for reform. The Government accepts the need for reform. We have set that very clearly and set it out in our election manifesto for the election in May. However, what we undertook in the governance review was an open consultation. Where the Government just did not say, here is our prescribed model, what do you think of it? We posed a number of searching questions about the performance of every aspect of education. I come back to the points that I made in answer to one of the Conservative members earlier on. If performance is not as we would like it to be, how on earth can the Government conduct a consultation exercise without asking hard questions of everybody involved in education? Everybody, including the Government, of course the Government's agencies are involved there, and the Government itself is part of that process. The issues that have to be confronted are about performance within Scottish education. Is it a surprise that COSLA comes back and tells me to just leave things the way they are? Local authorities are all responsible for the delivery of education in Scotland. If that performance is not good enough, which Mr Gray tells me on a regular basis, is the case, I should be asking hard questions of local authorities and other bodies. We should not be surprised if local authority bodies come back and say, do not disturb anything because everything is fine because they are the ones responsible for the current system. Mr Gray is saying to me that that is not what he is saying. I have read the COSLA submission and that is what it says to me. On the question about the RSE and the point about a clear rationale, the test of whether there is a clear rationale will come from the proposals that the Government brings forward. That is the test that we have to pass. We have to listen to the evidence, which I will take care to do. I am not going to be in a hurry to address it. I am going to listen carefully and consider carefully the issues. Then I will bring forward a clear rationale for reform of Scottish education based on the fact that we must improve performance to give every young person the best chance they can for their future in Scotland, and nobody in Parliament should be in any way shy of confronting that issue. That concludes portfolio questions. We now move on to a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, General Robertson. We will take a few seconds to change seats.