 The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on improving literacy in Scottish education. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement and so no interventions or interruptions please. I now call on John Swinney. Ten minutes please, cabinet secretary. The results of the latest Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy were published earlier today. The publication contains data on literacy performance in P4, P7 and S2 in 2016 and includes comparisons to 2012 and 2014 results. It also includes results from questionnaires with pupils and teachers. Whilst the results show a generally stable position in performance between 2014 and 2016, the statistics also show a drop in writing performance for S2 pupils, which is of particular concern. The Scottish Government is committed to improving performance within education in Scotland. I therefore welcome the opportunity to make a statement to Parliament reflecting on the results of the SSLN and setting out what I intend to do about the issues that they raise. In order to understand the factors behind those results, I have looked at independent analysis of Scotland's education system, provided both by the OECD's 2015 review of Scottish education and by Education Scotland's quality and improvement in Scottish education report, which was published in March, which summarises findings from inspections and other evaluation activities. I have also considered the information provided by the national improvement framework, which was developed in response to the latest SSLN literacy results. Those sources highlight four key areas where our education system needs to improve. We need to get better at tracking the progress of each individual pupil over the course of their school career. The requirement has meant that we have not been as effective as we need to be in identifying where young people may need additional support. We need to be clearer about the standards that are expected in our classrooms. This has meant that teachers have not always been certain about what is required to meet each curriculum for excellence level in literacy, numeracy and across the curriculum areas. Too much well-meaning but overbearing guidance has been produced nationally, locally and sometimes in schools themselves. This has created too much clutter in the curriculum and can divert teachers' time from learning and teaching. We need to ensure that literacy skills are fully embedded across the curriculum. Inspection evidence found that the potential impact of establishing literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing areas as cross-cutting priorities for all teachers has not been fully realised. When we published the SSL in literacy data in 2015, it became clear that we needed a broader and much deeper level of data to secure improvement for Scotland's children. To address that, we developed the national improvement framework and we now have data reflecting the progress of all children at key points of curriculum for excellence. We now have more data than ever on children's progress under curriculum for excellence, including the attainment levels in literacy and numeracy of every child in P1, P4, P7 and S3. So, whilst the SSL's statistics are disappointing, we published data in December 2016 based on teacher judgment demonstrating that 84 per cent of young people in Scotland achieve the appropriate curriculum for excellence level of a writing for the end of S3. Whilst the SSL's survey helps to identify emerging issues, the national improvement framework provides us with the data that allows us to target improvement in specific parts of Scotland. National standardised assessments on literacy and numeracy will further support teacher judgment on where a pupil is doing well and where further support may be required. In addition, we are already taking action in response to the specific areas of improvement that I identified. In order to improve the tracking of each child's progress through the national improvement framework, we now have a clear line of sight between national, local authority and school level data, ensuring that we can all focus on where improvement needs to happen. In order to clarify the standards that are expected, we published benchmarks for literacy and numeracy in August 2016. Benchmarks for other curricular areas were published earlier this year. In order to declutter the curriculum, we have significantly streamlined the volume of advice and guidance. 85 per cent of the content that had been on the Education Scotland online service for the curriculum and assessment has now been removed. The national improvement hub will be the key source of material for teachers moving forward. In September 2016, inspectors evaluated the workload demands placed on teachers in each of the 32 local authorities and are continuing to monitor progress, particularly in areas where too much bureaucracy was identified. In order to improve literacy across the curriculum, the literacy benchmarks make clear the standards that are expected across the curriculum and apply to all teachers. A focus on raising attainment in literacy has been included in the new school inspection model that was introduced in September 2016. Through the Scottish attainment challenge, we are funding and supporting the development of a range of new strategies in literacy to improve children's attainment and close the attainment gap. The most effective strategies from Scottish schools are being published on the Interventions for Equity framework on the National Improvement Hub. We have also entered into a new partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation, which will give Scottish teachers access to strategies that are proven to work based on a global evidence base. Those actions are all part of a wider programme of comprehensive reforms prompted by previous SSLN results and based firmly on the independent findings of the 2015 OECD review of Scottish education. There are a number of significant developments in this area that are worth highlighting. We are increasing investment and support in the early years through the significant expansion of early learning and childcare. That will help to address the gap in vocabulary at P1 between children from more deprived and less deprived circumstances. We are building the capacity of the teaching workforce by investing in the professional learning and recruitment of teachers and introducing new programmes to train and develop head teachers. We are developing targeted interventions for schools through the £750 million Scottish attainment challenge programme. The challenge will tackle the poverty-related attainment gap by targeting resources at the children's schools and communities most in need, focusing specifically on literacy along with numeracy and health and wellbeing. All schools now have access to attainment advisers and from April this year £120 million is being provided directly to head teachers to use for activities and interventions that will lead to improvements in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing in their schools. The pupil equity fund demonstrates our clear commitment to put schools and communities at the heart of the education system. Next month we will publish the next steps in the review of governance. Those steps will support the national improvement framework and ensure that the education system puts children, parents, teachers and schools at the centre. Those reforms will provide teachers and schools with the tools through the literacy benchmarks and the standardised assessments and the resources through the Scottish attainment challenge and the pupil equity fund that they need to improve literacy. They will ensure a relentless focus on developing the skills that are essential to literacy development from a child's birth right through to when they leave school. However, in acknowledging the challenges presented by the SSLN results, I am determined that we do not lose sight of the many strengths in Scotland's education system. The data from the SSLN itself tells us that pupils in Scottish schools are highly engaged with their learning and motivated to do well. Consistently, over the six-year life of the survey, over 94 per cent of pupils said that they wanted to do well and felt that they usually did well in school. The majority also see the clear value of what they learn both for life outside school and for future employability. Teachers also report the use of varied teaching and learning techniques exactly as curriculum for excellence requires them to do and generally high levels of confidence in delivering the literacy aspects of the curriculum. Teachers also report high levels of confidence in the use of ICT to enhance learning and particularly in our primary schools that it is used regularly for delivering learning and support to pupils. At a time when many young people are sitting in examinations, we should also acknowledge the progress that we have seen in results in the national qualifications. In 2016, the number of advanced higher passes reached a record high, while the number of higher passes was second only to the record in 2015. A record proportion of young people from Scotland's most deprived communities are continuing their education, entering training or getting a job after they leave school. 88.7 per cent of school leavers from these communities went into a positive destination in 2015-16, the highest ever proportion and up from 83.9 per cent in 2011-12. In fully accepting the case for reform confirmed by today's statistics, we must not fall into the trap of ignoring the tangible strength in our education system that is delivering well for a great many of young people in Scotland. In conclusion, the latest phase of reform is only now starting to come into force, with £120 million given to headteachers to spend on improving attainment just last month, the outcome of the governance review expected next month and the introduction of standardised assessments later this year. Those actions will not deliver an overnight solution. It will take time before we see their full effect. However, it is clear that we must stay the course and continue to make the changes that are necessary to strengthen Scottish education. This requires an unwavering focus on improving Scotland's education system for every child, and we are doing exactly that. Cabinet Secretary, we will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement, and I will allow around 20 minutes for that. It would be helpful if members who wish to ask a question could press the request-to-speak buttons. I suspect that there is quite a lot, so short questions and answers would be much appreciated. Liz Smith. Deputy Presiding Officer, I am very grateful for a prior sight of this statement. Cabinet Secretary, there will be many parents across Scotland who see some of those statistics as nothing short of shameful. Most especially those who reflect the persistence of the attainment gap, the decline in some basic literacy skills between primary 4 and S2, and the increase in those pupils in S2 who are not meeting the required standards in writing at all. So could I ask the Cabinet Secretary, does he agree with some of the teachers who have responded to the education committee's call for evidence, which cite that falling teacher numbers and additional classroom bureaucracy are the pressures that prevent them from getting on with the job that they are trained to do, including better teaching of literacy and numeracy? Secondly, does he agree with literacy expert Sue Ellis when she says that there is a lack of focus to ensure that teachers have a depth of knowledge in maths and literacy and that teacher training is falling short in this area? Thirdly, does he now accept that a wide range of data is essential if we are to effectively measure curriculum for excellence and that it was a mistake to move Scotland from Tim's and Pearl's measurements given their ability to provide additional and better quality evidence? John Swinney The first point that I would say to Liz Smith is that obviously I have come to Parliament acknowledging that those statistics need to improve. So it is an acknowledgement of the fact that those issues have to be addressed and the agenda of the Government is about addressing exactly that. When Liz Smith raises the issues about the performance of pupils at S2, one of the quirks of the SSLN is that it assesses the performance of pupils at a level before they are supposed to reach that level. Young people are supposed to reach third level at the end of S3. In my statement, I made the point that in the data that we published in December, 84 per cent of young people who reached the conclusion of stage 3 had acquired the level of skills in writing that they were required to achieve by that stage in their education. So the SSLN essentially assesses young people's performance at a level higher than that that they should have achieved by that particular time. The second point is in relation to her comments about the input from teachers into the education committee's review. I would remind Liz Smith that one of my first priorities as education secretary was to tackle bureaucracy within our schools. I sent the inspectors into local authorities to reduce bureaucracy. I sent out guidance to teachers to encourage them to concentrate on learning and teaching to, if my memory serves me right, undertake tasks that were irrelevant to the learning and teaching of young people. I accept that we have to declutter the guidance and classroom environment to enable teachers to concentrate on literacy and numeracy. Thirdly, in relation to the comments of Sue Ellis on teacher training, the quality of teacher training is essential to be of the highest possible standard. I maintain a regular dialogue with the teacher training colleges to ensure that that is the case. Of course, there is the opportunity for Education Scotland to inspect that provision to determine whether it is fulfilling all of our expectations in that respect. Lastly, in relation to data, the Government has embarked on a process of significantly expanding the data that we collect in relation to the performance of young people. The problem with the SSLN survey is that it does not enable us when we see declining performance to be able to identify from that survey where that is happening, but the data that we have requested to be put in place and which will be substantially reinforced by standardised assessments give us that ability to do that and to support young people to fulfil their potential as a result. Of course, the Government, in embarking on its approach to education, has been very open to external critique of the approach that we have taken in Scotland, which is why we invited the OECD to assess the implementation of curriculum for excellence and why we have acted upon the recommendations that the OECD asked us to take forward as a consequence of their review. Iain Gray Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thanks to Cabinet Secretary for Early Sight of his statement. The Cabinet Secretary says that today's statistics are on the case for reform. What they confirm is the case against his Government's 10-year stewardship of education. He says he can't turn it round overnight. His Government has had 10 years, a generation of children have passed through school while they were getting up to speed. How many years does he need? In those 10 years, we have lost over 4,000 teachers from our schools, lost over 1,000 support staff, spent per pupil, has fallen and class sizes have grown to some of the biggest in the developed world. The Cabinet Secretary promises clear lines of sight, new benchmarks and a new framework on the improvement hub. When is he going to promise us more teachers with more support and more resources to let them do the job they love and want to do? Is not that the fundamental reform that we need now? John Swinney. When the SSLN information first pointed to a decline in performance in Scottish education, the Government acted immediately on the issues that it raised. From the decline in performance that was identified in the SSLN surveys in 2014, the Government acted immediately to take forward the national improvement framework, which I think is being regarded across the board within the education system as the set of measures that are required to be undertaken to ensure that we support and concentrate on the agenda of improvement in every aspect of our education system. That is something that we should take great encouragement from the way in which the system has responded to that call for action. In relation to the issue of resources, Mr Gray raises the issue of more teachers and more resources. Of course, there are a rising number of teachers in our education system. There are more teachers this year than there were last year. In terms of resources, the Government has put £120 million directly into the hands of schools to determine how they can close the attainment gap in their own circumstances. Of course, in relation to the wider settlement for local authorities and local authority finances, the Accounts Commission and its most recent analysis of the subject showed that the local authorities of Scotland had been well treated by this Government in the context of the reduction in resources that we had available to them. Finally, I make the point to Mr Gray that if there was such a resources crisis as he highlights, why did a number of Labour local authorities not take the opportunity to supplement the resources that could have been available to them for this financial year by increasing the council tax? Until Mr Gray gives us a decent answer to that question, we will not take seriously his protestations on this point. Jenny Gilruth to be followed by Ross Thompson. I remind members that I am the PLO to the Cabinet Secretary. I agree with the Cabinet Secretary that today's results underline the fact that the status quo can no longer be an option. However, we have heard a lot of noise from some quarters opposing the Scottish Government's plans to reform our education system or suggesting that they should be slowed down entirely. Would the Cabinet Secretary agree that there is now more reason for stakeholders and MSPs in this chamber to come together to support reform in order to achieve the best possible education system for our young people? John Swinney. What I would say to the member and to the chamber is that the Government is concluding its review of governance. I will report to Parliament as I promised to do so. However, what the entire education system has to focus on is the arguments and the case for improvement and that requires us to reform the way in which we deliver education. I have gone through the arguments with Parliament before that we are in a position today where I am not at all confident that every local authority in Scotland can provide the necessary enhancement to the quality of education that our schools require. That is no longer possible. If I cannot give that assurance to Parliament, I have to do something about it. Mr Johnson frequently asked me to cite what evidence that is the evidence that I get from inspections, the evidence that I get from the assessment of the capability and the quality of added value by local authorities. Those are the issues that we have to confront in the governance review. The Government will do that in an open and transparent fashion in consultation with Parliament and invite Parliament to discuss that with us. Ross Thomson, followed by Ruth Maguire. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It is disappointing that the Cabinet Secretary refuses to face the issues in our education system head-on, rather than tackling the core of the problem, like why the curriculum guidance is cluttered and why standards are not clear. We see time and time again mere sticking plaster solutions rather than the real or radical reform that is needed. Does the Cabinet Secretary not agree with me that what we need is that root and branch review of the curriculum? So that teachers can focus on the fundamental issues, such as literacy and numeracy. John Swinney. I'm not sure how much Mr Thomson has been paying attention to in the course of the last few months, but if he had read the letter of guidance from the chief inspector of education that was issued to every single school teacher in August of last year, he would have seen the chief inspector of education say to every teacher in the country that out of the eight curricular areas, all teachers, no matter their discipline, had to be focused on ensuring that they made their contribution to the delivery of the primary elements of the curricular areas of literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. So when Mr Thomson comes here and says that I haven't confronted the issues, I don't know what he's talking about, because I've done that. He talks about curriculum guidance. The curriculum guidance has been sharpened in the fashion that I have said. He talks about standards. The benchmarks have been issued. The literacy and numeracy benchmarks were issued in August of last year to the relevant, to the members of the teaching profession. I have to say to some a welcome endorsement by the teaching profession and the other benchmarks were issued in March. So I invite Mr Thomson, when he's going to come here and scrutinise the Government to at least catch up with the work that we have undertaken to ensure that we strengthen the delivery of Scottish education and respond to the challenges that were faced to the length and breadth of the country. Ruth Maguire, followed by Daniel Johnson. I welcome what the cabinet secretary has said on the wider programme of reforms but I wonder if he could expand a bit further on what impact he expects investment and support in early years to have on improving vocabularly when children move into primary school. John Swinney. Presiding Officer, this is a critical part of the work that we take forward because all of the evidence says to us that the earlier we can intervene to overcome the challenges that young people face, the more impact those interventions will have and the most amount of progress that will be made for enhancing the capacity and the capability of individual children. Within the early learning setting, partnerships with primary schools working with speech and language therapists and I saw a fabulous example of that last week when I was at Letham primary school in the city of Perth where there is a great example of speech and language therapists working very closely with the youngest of pupils to overcome some of those speech challenges that children have. I saw this morning at Craig Royston primary school in Edinburgh a very similar model and I am very focused on ensuring that the work that is taken forward by the early years minister along with myself on designing the expansion of early learning and childcare takes that forward in a fashion that uses every opportunity to overcome those challenges for children at the early stages and to ensure that they can start their formal education with the strongest foundations possible to overcome those difficulties. Daniel Johnson, followed by Gillian Martin. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary quoted the figure of 88.7 per cent of school leavers entering positive destinations from the most deprived communities. Can he confirm that that figure includes people going on to jobs on zero-hours contracts? John Swinney. Mr Johnson knows full well that the approved national statistics assessment of positive destinations includes that category. It's a measure of the fact that young people are moving into employment. The employment may not be of the ideal quality in our society which is a general and widespread challenge that we have to face. When this Government is taking forward as part of its fair work agenda to strengthen the commitment on living wage to ensure that we move more and more employers towards stronger employment practices and stronger employment foundations and ensuring that our education system generates the necessary skills for young people to prosper in that fashion is a strong and robust approach to take. The final point that I would say to Mr Johnson is that this Government has in no way changed the definition of positive destinations. That definition has been around for a long time. Gillian Martin, followed by Ross Greer. Thank you, Presiding Officer. There appears to be a stubborn and persistent gender gap in literacy. Can I ask what action the Scottish Government is taking to address that? John Swinney. The Government is focused on ensuring and this is one of the benefits of the flexibility that is offered through pupil equity funding to make sure that in a classroom setting an individual school setting members of the teaching profession are able to make the judgments about what support every child requires to ensure that they can fulfil their potential. The more and more teachers have the flexibility to draw on the resources, the specialist resources, whether it is speech and language therapists or to create a greater appreciation of literacy and a greater participation in literacy, that has to be targeted towards each individual child who is not performing at the level that we would expect. The issue of tackling the gender split within those statistics is taken forward in a fashion by addressing the needs of individual pupils so that they can fulfil their potential. Ross Greer, followed by Liam McArthur. As has been mentioned already, the core issue here is that there are simply far fewer staff in our schools than there were a decade ago and it will be cold comfort to teachers to hear from the cabinet secretary today that there are slightly more of them than there were a year ago when there are 4,000 fewer of them than there were a decade ago. No governance review will change the core issue there. Both teachers and support staff were not asking for that review. They want their cut colleagues back. Specifically, we have lost a third of school librarians. I would ask the cabinet secretary what impact does he think 100 lost librarians have had on the reading and writing abilities of pupils? John Swinney. Mr Greer may know from my appearance at the Public Petitions Committee just a week or so ago. I made very clear my view that school librarians play a very significant part in the life of a school and also of the literacy capability of young people. So I not only encouraged local authorities to maintain school librarian services but I also intend to take forward the delivery of a national strategy on school librarianship. Obviously, these decisions are operationally taken by local authorities around the country. We wrestle with this question on a constant basis when members of Parliament can ask me about concerns they have in their locality on issues and decisions over which I have absolutely no control because I do not control the fact that Argyllin Bute Council has decided that it can do without school libraries when I go to other schools in the country where they have vibrant library services well and truly supported because that authority values them. If Mr Greer is asking me for my opinion about Argyllin Bute it is a shockingly poor decision to remove library services from schools shockingly poor decision but unless I direct them to do something else that gets us into a completely different territory. I will do my level best to try to ensure that we raise the appreciation and understanding of the value of library services through the national library strategy that I am going to take forward and I will work with local authorities to try to gain their participation in such an approach. Liam McArthur followed by Clare Argyll. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement but those results on literacy and numeracy do confirm that pupils and teachers are paying a heavy price after 10 years of this SNP Government. Teachers have condemned inconsistencies and a barrage of changes from the last four education secretaries more than 1,000 pages of evidence to be considered by the education tomorrow to illustrate that perfectly. What confidence therefore can teachers, pupils and parents have that this education secretary has got it right this time? John Swinney. I think that that should be obvious to Mr McArthur. The point that I make seriously to Mr McArthur is this. In each stage of the guidance that has been formulated for the education system over the implementation of curriculum for excellence has not been designed in the relevant cabinet secretary's office in consultation with nobody. It has all been designed in consultation with professional associations who represent teachers. I hear Liz Smith muttering. Professional associations represent teachers with local authorities, their education bodies, they have been arrived at by consensus and have been applied. I accept that it has been a core part of my approach as education secretary that there is too much of that guidance, there is too much for teachers to work through and there is too much of it that needs to be woven together to create a sufficiently clear picture. I have taken the action to strip back that guidance. That is why I answered Mr Thomson about the guidance that has been issued by the chief inspector of education on the primacy of health and wellbeing and literacy and numeracy. That is why we have given the very clear benchmarks as to what levels have to be achieved by young people at different levels precisely to address the issues that Mr McArthur fairly raises with me today. The survey predates all of that because the survey was undertaken in the spring of 2016. None of the measures that I have taken have had that effect on the survey detail that we have had before us today. We will continue on the relentless agenda that I have set out to Parliament to simplify the education agenda so that we can liberate teachers to concentrate on what we need them to concentrate on, which is learning and teaching. We have used up our time but I can get the last four questions in if we have quick questions and answers. I have Claire Hawke to be followed by Alexander Stewart. Could the cabinet secretary outline examples of best practice for local authorities and teachers using attainment funding to improve literacy and numeracy in our schools? John Swinney. I suspect that I would not be able to give a brief answer to that but just one example that I saw this morning of people at the funding being used in Craig Royce's primary school to help young people who are having their speech and communication directly assisted in a classroom setting by speech and language therapists getting their assistance right to children immediately in a sustained way with very positive results. Alexander Stewart. Followed by Monica Lennon. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Scottish Government and First Minister have insisted that education is their main priority. However, the figures released today show that the percentage of pupils in S2 who are not meeting the required level in writing has more than doubled in the last four years, from 7 per cent in 2012 to 16 per cent. Mr Stewart, please. Can I ask the cabinet secretary? Yes, you can. He reflects that this is partially due to a lack of understanding of what standards are expected. Why is there a lack of understanding, cabinet secretary? John Swinney. What curriculum for excellence require teachers to do is to consider a variety of different elements of the material to be covered by young people and to assess the performance of young people against all of that information. I think that that has been too broad a task for teachers to undertake with confidence. The benchmarks that have now been put in place for literacy and numeracy back in August and in other curricular areas in March of this year are designed to give that absolute clarity. The reason why I judge that to be appropriate is that in my conversations with many, many teachers over the course of the last 12 months have convinced me that that has been one element that had to be sharpened to give teachers the clarity that they require. Monica Lennon, to be followed by John Mason. Just last week I raised the issue of literacy rates and portfolio questions. I'm sure that the cabinet secretary will recall and in terms of cuts to professional library staff Ross Greer has just mentioned that again today. The cabinet secretary has said that in some areas there are no libraries that are closing like her Gail and Buton. Ms Lennon, would you please ask a question? As there are no libraries that are more vibrant does the cabinet secretary for one minute believe that local government enjoys closing libraries or letting no staff go? And whilst the government maintains that the settlement is fair to local government are resulting in the closures and loss of staff. John Swinney. There are choices in amongst all this. Some local authorities attach the greatest significance to having school libraries and others shut them all. If one local authority judges this to be an asset, that begs questions what is the rationale and justification for the other local authority taking a different decision. Is that about ensuring that local authorities take a different decision? Will you please stop the conversation across the chamber? What that requires is local authorities in all circumstances to look at the wider impact of decisions that they take. I come back to the point that I made in response to Mr Greer which was about the Accounts Commission assessment of the Government's financial approach and support to local authorities which has been consistent with the degree of reductions in funding that the Government has suffered at the hands of the UK Government, but we have also put resources into the local authorities. We have put the pupil equity funding into local authorities. We agreed a budget with the Green Party which allowed 160 million pounds of extra funding to go into our local authorities and that has been of benefit in education settlements. A quick question and answer from John Mason. Is that damaging literacy? There is no proven evidence on that point, but there are a number of international educationists who are now raising the question about the potential significance of the impact on the writing capability of young people as a consequence of the volume of digital activity in which they are involved and that tends to be shorter digital activity than longer communication. There is nothing I have yet seen in substantive evidence, but there are enough educationalists including one of the members of our international council, Pazzie Salberg from Finland, who are active in exploring the question. That concludes questions on literacy and Scottish education. I'll give a minute or so for seats to be changed.