 Rwyf industrial strategy among countries, the eseith gan ein dicing on Zone 1-1-1-8-7-5, on the name of Pam Duncan-Glansiy, on stand up for quality education. I would invite those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the sounding hearts, and I call on Pam Duncan-Glansiy to speak too and to move the motion up to six minutes please. Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the motion in my name. I and my party have long believed that education can be a great leveller, spreading opportunity for all and that it should be built on the values of opportunity and ambition of high aspiration and standards for every child that passes through the school gates in any school in any part of our country. But we know that it won't do that by accident, it only happens by design. I and my party brought this debate today because we are worried that we face systemic challenges in education that could hold back our potential. Since I became a Scottish Labour spokesperson on education, I found that no matter what stone I turn over or what corner I look around, there are deep and wide-ranging challenges, despite the best efforts of our outstanding teachers, the hard work of our pupils and the tenacity of our parents. There is a quote in the national discussion report from a teacher that has stuck with me and sums the challenges up well, and it's this. In my class of 30, four have ASD, three have long-standing anxiety difficulties, one has been adopted, one is experienced in a form of trauma, one is a young carer, two others have severe learning difficulties. There is only one of me. I can't give those children enough of my attention to support their wellbeing, never mind their and the other children's learning needs. I know exactly what support each child needs, but I can't split myself 38 ways. That quote not only sums up the complexities that our teachers face, but also shines a light on why classrooms are becoming a bit like pressure cookers. With concerns bubbling up, they are vulnerable to overflow, and the result is behavioural concern, teachers at the end of their tether, and yes, now, declining standards in education. We have to address all of this if we are to rebuild our education system and spread opportunity for all. Back in December, I was grateful to the cabinet secretary for finally recognising that standards are slipping, but it shouldn't have taken Scotland falling behind our neighbours and our international peers for this Government to take action. For too long, pupils, teachers and parents have seen a very different reality to the picture their Government has painted. This disconnect has left them wondering why their Government isn't listening, and why promises made on contact time free breakfast for primary school pupils, which ensure that they are starting the day fed and ready to learn, remain undelivered. They are watching in anticipation of what we, their representatives and the Government will do to give them the education system that they want and deserve to make classrooms safe, nurturing, conducive environments that they should be, and ensure that children are in those classrooms. They are looking for leadership not just to address the decline in performance, academic performance, but in pupil engagement too. Parents, teachers and unions recognise, as I do, that we must view challenges not in isolation but as interconnected parts that have a cause-and-effect relationship that demand our urgent attention. The EIS stands up for quality education campaign as a fantastic example of an interconnected and systemic approach to delivering the education that we need. The first issue that it raises is teacher workload, a concern that will resonate with all working across our education system. Teachers are the architects of our children's futures, the backbone in the system that we need at its best if we are to achieve our goal of opportunity for all. Right now, they are overburdened by excessive workload, stretched across competing demands and tangled up in bureaucracy, all hindering their ability to deliver the quality education that they got into the profession to provide. The solution lies in concrete measures to alleviate those burdens, including the promised increase in non-contact time to provide teachers the breathing space that they need. I repeat my ask to the Government today on when it will be delivered. It is not just the conditions that are difficult. The issue is also compounded with continued use of temporary teaching contracts. 5,000 of our teachers are without stable permanent positions facing insecurity. It is no wonder, then, that teacher numbers are down in secondary school when we need them on the rise, and the number of teachers still teaching after their first year has dropped from where it was five years ago. That is a self-perpetuating cycle, created by Government in action. Reduce teacher numbers makes it more difficult to deliver on the promise of non-contact time, and the shortages are not felt equally. Some areas and subjects are far worse. One way to address that is to ask probationary teachers to opt into the preference waiver scheme, but against such precarity, there has been a reduction in people opting in to do that, exacerbating gaps in geographical provision and undermining equality. Teaching is an incredible profession to enter into. The opportunities to shape lives are numerous. We should cherish and value it. The recruitment and retention crisis is a product bigger than salary and wages. It is about the conditions in the room. The lack of support for pupils with ASN, the violence and poor behaviour that we see, the prevalence of declining standards and disengagement weighs heavy on teachers. All of this needs to rest. The solutions cannot be simply, as the Government has previously suggested, teach teachers how to be better. Teachers are already excellent, and I know that the cabinet secretary believes that. However, they are too often going it alone. The number of teachers who are specially qualified and equipped to handle complex needs has dwindled, falling by over 700 over the last decade. Where additional support staff do exist, they are scarce and spread thin. I figure that it is masked by poor monitoring and reporting and conflated definition of what remit different support staff have. The Stand Up for Quality Education campaign rightly emphasises the need for strategies to tackle those issues head-on. The Scottish Government's international council of education advisers are right. We must recognise the time for commissioning reviews is over and the time for action is now. The motion before us today calls for, as I start, the Government to do what it promised, set out a clear timetable to deliver, not just review recommendations, which we continue to wait for, but on non-contact time, ASN support and free breakfasts. In short, this motion is a call to action, a rallying cry for a concerted effort to deliver high and rising standards of education in Scotland, classrooms where everyone is safe, feels safe and where all pupils, regardless of their backgrounds, can learn. The challenges are formidable, but so too is our resolve. Let us set aside political differences, unite in the pursuit of a brighter future for our children. The time for reviews is over, the time for action is now. I now call on Jenny Gilruth to speak to and to move amendment 11875.2 up to five minutes please. The Labour motion today refers to PISA results, teacher workload, additional support needs, challenging behaviour, workforce challenges, structural reform and free school meals. I have no aspiration to compose opposition motions, however I have to say that the idea that we will be able to fully debate all those topics in a truncated opposition debate this afternoon is simply not credible. There was the opportunity for a genuine debate on education in the national debating chamber this afternoon, and I do fear that instead what we will hear today will create a highly predictable political rami, given the language used in the motion. In sincerity, I have to ask who does that serve, not Scotland's children and certainly not Scotland's teachers. That is why I move the amendment in my name to the Labour motion, which sets out the facts around Scottish education, which all members in the chamber should be able to support, happy to give way to Ms Duncan-Glancy. I thank the cabinet secretary for taking that intervention, but with respect the motion includes all those things, because they are interconnected. For too long, parents, teachers and pupils have seen this Government pick and choose bits of the system, tinker around the edges and deliver very little change in education. That is why it is all in this motion. I am not necessarily sure that I agree with the rationale behind Ms Duncan-Glancy's thinking. It looks a bit of a copy and paste job to me, but nonetheless, to the task in hand, an attempted dissection of the Labour party motion today. Scotland's PISA results published in December. As I set out in my statement to Parliament then, both the First Minister and I have accepted that the results were not good enough. I have previously outlined a comprehensive plan on how we are going to improve attainment and achievement. For example, focusing on curriculum improvement, as I updated the Education and Skills Committee this morning. Our curriculum improvement cycle is going to start with maths and be led by a math specialist, with English and literacy being the next subject area reviewed. However, while important, PISA is one dataset that should not be considered in isolation. I spend much of my time as Cabinet Secretary in and out of our schools, and I am always blown away by the committed teachers and young people. I saw only last week proud pupils at St Paul's high school in Pollock who told me about their journey to achieving goals stated with the SCQF's school ambassador programme. There are many positives in Scotland's education system, so it is somewhat disappointing that the Labour party could not bring themselves to acknowledge a single positive achievement by our pupils and teachers in today's motion. Another dataset, strangely lacking from the Labour motion, was the achievement of curriculum for excellence levels, known as ASL, data that was published last month. ASL shows that, for both literacy and numeracy, the proportions of primary school children achieving the expected curriculum for excellence levels are at record highs for children from both the most and least deprived areas of Scotland. I remind the chamber that ASL data is predicated on teacher judgment, which we trust to teach our children and young people every day. I am very grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving me an to talking about the ASL, because are those the same teachers that we did not trust with the assessment during Covid and the changes that the SQA demanded to go back to the old system? I am not sure that I understand the member's point in relation to what happened during the pandemic. However, it is important that we look at a broad range of dataset, and I think that it is dispiriting somewhat that the motion today from the Scottish Labour Party does not say anything positive about Scottish education. What does that say about the offer from Scottish Labour in relation to its vision for Scottish education? I would like to hear it. The attainment gap in literacy in primary schools is at the lowest level on record, and we are also seeing the gap reduce in secondary schools. Given those results, I am dispirited that the motion today does not make mention of that data. I do not shy away from the areas where we face challenge indeed. I spent a large amount of my time during December in this very chamber discussing some of those challenges in detail, but I do question why the Labour Party would want to shy away from the genuine positives in our system. It is also strange that we do not hear mention from the Labour Party around about last year's examination results. So, in summer of 2023, we had the highest ever number of passes at national 5 since the qualification was introduced in 2014, and a record number of vocational and technical qualifications were achieved. Advanced and higher passes are also above those seen before the pandemic. This Government, Presiding Officer, is doing all that we can within our limited powers to protect Scotland's children from the impacts of Westminster austerity. That is why, of course, we have been vested in the Scottish child payment, lifting an estimated 90,000 children out of poverty this year. It is why we are investing in the most generous free school meal provision of any nation in the UK across our free school meals programme, and the 24-25 budget also commits to further roll-out in relation to the Scottish child care element of that. Presiding Officer, I am conscious of time, but there is a lot to be positive about in Scottish education. Record attainment levels in primary, a record low attainment gap in literacy and primary schools, exam passes above the pre-pandemic levels and the highest investment per pupil, and the lowest pupil teacher ratio in the UK. Cabinet Secretary, we will need to convince— I have been clear in acknowledging the challenges, but I am asking once again for all members to engage constructively in this debate, because only by working together— Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. We have no time in hand to speak of, and therefore I invite members to please stick to the time that they have agreed to, actually. They have agreed to their speaking slots, and I would really invite members to speak to their slot. With that, I call Mr Kerr. Up to four minutes, please, and to please move amendment 11875.1. Officer, and this is an incredibly important debate, because I think we'd all agree that education is the key brief in sorting out the myriad of issues facing Scotland after 16 years of SNP government. However, I have a mere four minutes to set out the Scottish Conservatives' proposition, as yet again it is left to the Opposition parties to use our debating time to demand education beyond the agenda. Indeed, despite having significantly fewer opportunities, and despite the violent endemic in our schools that Scottish Conservatives forced to debate on last summer, despite the piece of figures from last year showing standards sliding that Scottish Conservatives forced to debate on, and plummeting teacher numbers that we've heard about and morale due to lack of resources, the Opposition have called more debates on education than the Scottish Government since the current Cabinet Secretary took office. This Government has called one in that time, and then dares to criticise Pam Duncan Glancy for having done so, which perhaps tells Parliament all it needs to know about where this Government's priorities lie. So I welcome the Labour motion, which is right to highlight the appalling statistics that this Government has presided over, including, to go into more detail, the PISA results showing Scotland's mass reading and science scores plummeting, sometimes to record lows. My research, which revealed that more than 11,000 teachers and support staff are stuck on temporary contracts, whilst more than 6,000 teachers and school staff were signed off with stress or poor mental health during the last academic year. The fact that 600 pupils last year had zero attendance at school, with one in eight on average absent any day, and the Scottish Government doesn't even collate data on who they are or why they're away, and the failure, as we heard, to deliver free breakfast to primary and special school children as they promised. I could add to that other areas where the Scottish Government's falling behind, like over 1,000 Scottish schools lacking life-saving defibrillators, or rural schools twice as likely to be in a poor condition than urban, and, of course, the abject failure to tackle violence in schools, whether against teachers or other pupils. That, despite the important briefing that we received from Zero Tolerance concerning how rife violence is against women and girls and misogyny in Scottish schools. Yet into that, the cabinet secretary submits an amendment that deletes all of the substantive amendments raised by the Labour motion. Indeed, instead of acknowledging the issues and saying, let's work together to the betterment of Scotland and its people, this is a Government that prefers to ignore the reality and blames everyone and anyone else but itself. Presiding Officer, with so limited time, I will cut to the chase. My amendment seeks to recognise the issues that the Labour motion, which we shall vote for, raises, but also seeks to help the Government with solutions. Last April, the Scottish Conservatives proposed a new deal for teachers, which set out eight priorities to help our teachers. Those included more powers to head teachers and budgetary autonomy, cutting red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, reforming teachers' pay and contracts, introducing life skills as a core part of the curriculum. Crucially, we also note the EIS's stand up for quality education campaign, and we echo in our new deal their calls for smaller class sizes, less contact time, proper resourcing for SNP and schools more generally. Presiding Officer, we all want what is best for Scottish education and to support our teachers, school staff and pupils in their efforts to be the best they can be, to deliver a positive future for themselves and others, and to help Scotland's economic and social recovery from the last 16 years of this Government. At decision time tonight, let's put the politics aside and do what's right for Scottish education. Vote for the Labour motion to acknowledge the issues, then start to move forward with the constructive solutions proposed by Pam Duncan-Glancy and the EIS and the Scottish Conservatives by voting for the amendment, which I hear by move, in my name. Thank you, Mr Kerr, and I now call Willie Rennie up to four minutes, please, Mr Rennie. I'm hoping it's going to be a constructive and reasonable Willie Rennie that's making this contribution this afternoon. It might not last, but I have got some serious issues to raise, and some of them we raised this morning in the education committee, and I just want to strap a little bit from there. We are eight years into a 10-year SNP education reform programme. It was in response to what was seen as a crisis at the time, which was international performance and the poverty-related attainment gap. I think that the education secretary knows that very little has changed since then. In fact, in many cases, it's got worse. The international performance in the latest PISA study shows that we've slipped further, and the poverty-related attainment gap is bluntly stuck when it was supposed to be closed in just two years. I know that there's a debate about whether it's substantially closed or closed completely, but we've not really made much progress in that time. Now, a lot has happened. I accept that. We've got the pandemic, but that's made a significant impact. However, young people today don't want excuses. They just want the decent education that they were promised, and they're not saying that. Pamdan Glancy is right with a list of problems that she's identified on temporary teachers, on additional support for learning, on class contact timing and behaviour. I'm not going to rehearse all of those issues. However, the evidence is that the education reforms that were set out in year 1 of that 10-year programme just haven't worked. I believe that it's simply because the Government didn't really know at that time what was the cause of this decline. It didn't really understand what the problems were. I won't make an apology for making a speech about focusing on what I think the problems are, because that's our job in this place—to try and make things better. Of course, I'll celebrate the work that's done in schools and teachers, but our job is to make things better, so let's focus on the things that we need to improve. This morning, in the committee, I asked the Cabinet Secretary about that. She could only come up with one thing that was wrong with Scottish education. That was the broad general education transition into the senior phase. I think that that is important, but we can't really claim that that's the reason why we've had such poor, poverty-related attainment gap figures and PISA figures over that time, whether they've gone up or down relative to other countries. However, we can't really believe that that's the root cause, especially when PISA is for 15-year-olds, many of whom have not gone through that transition from the BGE to the senior phase. When I asked Shirley-Anne Somerville, her predecessor, about what she thought the problem was, she cited the lack of regional improvement collaboratives. They've been scrapped almost before they were established, so I don't think that we can really say that that was the reason, and we've not really got a substitute explanation for what has gone wrong. As a result, I think that we've had a ragtag bunch of reforms that have little focus and little cohesion. Let me make a few suggestions as to what I think the problem is. I think the role of knowledge. There was a dilution of knowledge and concepts even before curriculum for excellence accelerated through that process. I also think that the systems of accountability have been weak within Education Scotland that don't have the heft to effectively challenge local government and central government to drive improvement. It didn't even pick up on the decline in performance in the PISA figures but also the poverty-related entertainment gap. Another factor, I believe, was the lack of support for classroom materials. Curriculum for excellence turned teacher empowerment into teacher isolation. They were left to create classroom content from wooly principles that were really difficult to decipher. There's also the issue of resources, which many others have talked about today, as well as the BGE senior phase transition. That's my analysis as to what I think has gone wrong with Scottish education. I think that the Government needs to be able to simply, even if it doesn't agree with me, but to simply set out what the problems are, because if it can't, then it can't fix the problems. We end up with an incoherent set of changes and random changes. We've got a debate coming up quite soon where we'll be able to explore what the solutions are, and I'll be making an equally constructive contribution to that. We really need to get a real focus on what we think the problems are before we can move forward. We will now move to the open debate, and I call Michael Marra to be followed by Kate Forbes. Mr Marra, up to four minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy for bringing the motion on behalf of Scottish Labour today. She was right to begin by highlighting the PISA statistics, which are scores for maths and science at an all-time low, reading scores at the joint lowest level and Scottish pupils at now a full year behind their English counterparts in maths. The cabinet secretary rightly has acknowledged the challenge in the First Minister that those statistics are present for this country. They are central, as other members have highlighted, to any chance of recovery in our economy, in our social infrastructure and in our communities across Scotland. We have questions clearly of resourcing, and we have discussed the already-today empowerment issues around the budget settlement and the challenges that will emerge from that, relating to local government finance, which flow through into our schools, the cuts that have been made to university places and to college provision across Scotland, none of which will serve our country well in years to come. I want to focus today on the issue that Willie Rennie has just been highlighting about the programme of reform that was supposed to be followed by this Government. Those reforms have variously been botched, stalled and are, frankly, now non-existent. It emerged this morning that international expert Dr Naomi Stanford had asked by the SNP Government to help to implement the recommendations of the Mure report. It emerged this morning that she had resigned in despair at the glacial pace of change under this Government. She had asked the Government for some form of justification of significant and substantial changes that would justify her continued involvement with their work. No evidence of that was forthcoming, and she removed herself from that process. That was a year ago. We are a further year on, and yet we have no further progress at all. All of that talks to a reform agenda that has ground to a halt. I have great sympathy for people such as Ken Muir, who put in a huge amount of work, and the many people who were asked questions around the country and gave their experiences as the education system for a long period of time. At the behest of this Government, they were told that their opinions would count that they would result in changes, and they have resulted in nothing. Whether through Government incompetence or transjudance, there are real consequences to the lack of reform, and we see those in the piece of figures. The evidence from our teachers is also clear. Members surveyed real through the AIS that 71 per cent of teachers are unhappy with workload, highlighted in our motion today, and absolutely crucially so. We have to make sure that we can do as best we can to improve the situation that our teachers find themselves in. I want to take a moment to highlight the situation that I have raised with the cabinet secretary before, regarding the lack of a primary school in my constituency. Back in 2015, in the western gateway area of Dundee, home owners were promised a school by the SNP council that they were paying an extra £5,000 per house on a roof tax to help pay for it. Last year, SNP councillors failed to secure funding from her Government to pay for it. In response to me, I have heard warm words from the cabinet secretary and from the First Minister in November of last year. Frankly, those are amounted to nothing. Over 130 people attended a community meeting in December in Dundee, at which SNP councillors were completely unable to provide any assurances about the delivery of that school. Residents are outraged. This saga is now dragging on into a ninth year. When will the school ever be built? When can the people who are living in my area, my constituency, get the school that they were promised and that they have paid for it? The solution that is coming forward from this Government is going to result in all that money that they have paid being lost. Thank you, Mr Marra. I now call Kate Forbes, who is joining us remotely, to be followed by Alec Rowley up to four minutes, please, Ms Forbes. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and forgive me for not being present, although it might be a timely day to spare a thought for many young Highland pupils who are off to day due to the snow and the ice. I want to start my remarks by making an observation that I think we could all agree with, that there is probably no service as critical as education. When it comes to each of our public duties to the public, we have enormous weight on our shoulders to ensure that our young people who are growing up through the school system right now get the education system that they need in order to prepare them for the future. I agree with Pam Duncan-Glancy that this is the time for action, not for debate, but I think that that is precisely what the Scottish Government is doing with Jenny Gilruth's leadership for education, making quite clear what isn't working right now and the solutions to resolve it. I think that all of Labour's asks in the motion before us are difficult to argue with, but they are also all captured in the Cabinet Secretary's comprehensive plan that she set out in December. One of my biggest hopes for the debates that we have on education is moving away from perhaps inane discussions about inputs and start talking about success as measured in outcomes, skills, knowledge and the ability to thrive. Education Scotland says that it aims to equip young people with knowledge, confidence and skills, giving them a competitive edge in a global job market. That is precisely why PISA is so important, because it is a global perspective. PISA matters because international comparisons matter. I have said in a previous debate that that probably matters more than comparing with so-called previous golden ages, which I do not think actually existed. In December, the cabinet secretary accepted unequivocally that the Government wants to disrupt the trajectory based on attendance, behaviour or PISA, and she stated that the Government has high ambitions, and that being average is not good enough, we need to pursue excellence. She also said in that statement that there was something that remains more relevant than ever. She said that she agreed that knee-jerk political responses were not going to help our young people, that we were at an educational juncture, and that we needed substantive responses. In the brief time that I have left, I wanted to talk about what that requires. The first thing is to ensure that our young people are able to read, write and count at a level that is comparable to international peers. To do that, the cabinet secretary has previously promised a curriculum improvement to improve our curriculum in a planned and systematic way so that it is relevant and forward-looking with high-quality teaching and learning. She set out the need to focus on maths, which maths education needed to be a primary aim for improvement. It was to be the first area to be improved, and that would involve maths specialists with a full-scale update to the maths curriculum beginning this year that would then be tested with teachers next year. It would also be accompanied by a thematic inspection of literacy and English to ensure that the English curriculum meets those standards. It is worth observing that one of the criticisms that have been made is to ensure that the gap between Scotland and England and Scotland and the rest of the world is closed when it comes to the best 10 per cent of people so that we push our brightest as hard as possible. Secondly, all of that is in vain without ensuring that we— Ms Forbes, you will need to bring your remarks to a close, please. We deal with a poverty-related attainment gap, and with that, I will close. Thank you, Ms Forbes. I now call Alex Rowley to be followed by Sue Webber. Up to four minutes, please, Mr Rowley. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary talked about the mounting issues that are in the motion here from Labour today. I know that she is busy talking just now, but I suggest to the cabinet secretary that we use Government time. Why does the Government not bring forward in its time some of these debates so that we can discuss what I think is actually the most important issue right now in Scotland? It is our education system, the failings within our education system and the pressure that is on teachers, the pressure that is on pupils, the pressure that is on all staff within our schools. The cabinet secretary said previously that she set out a comprehensive plan. I actually do not believe that it was a comprehensive plan. If I remember correctly, one of that plan was to come up with a plan. The cabinet secretary talked about the commitment to teachers and pupils, and she has met many teachers. I think that I have said before that I met a lot of teachers during the teachers' industrial action dispute. I did so because I went on picket lines because I believed that teachers needed to have a better deal. I have to say that nothing prepared me for the discussions that I had with teachers. The kind of issues and problems that teachers were talking about that were going on in schools and putting massive pressure on them, we are saying that teachers leave the pressure in their robes and we are saying that teachers' sickness levels, stress and so on, are going up and up. That is because we are not tackling those issues. I do not doubt for a second the sincerity of the cabinet secretary, where she called the three emergency summits to talk about those issues and what we do with those issues. The problem for the cabinet secretary is that she does not control the budget. What we need is more resources going into our school sector in primary and secondary, and those resources in particular need to be looking at, as Pam Duncan Glancy says, the additional support needs. I met with a group of parents a month or so ago, all of whom had children with additional support needs. They were very critical because they were pointing out that their children were being failed when they were put into mainstream schooling and the additional support teachers are not there to support their children. Not only are their children not being supported, but because teachers are struggling trying to support them, they are not able to support the rest of the children. At the point that they made to me was that the Government's policies mean that we are not getting it right for many children, never mind getting it right for every child. That flies in the face. Kate Forbes spoke there about reading, writing and counting and being able to do that. The number of secondary school teachers that tell me that cohorts to kids coming up through primary are not equipped with the basic numeracy and literacy in order to proceed into the secondary education system, so that they are doomed for failure coming through the primary school and into the secondary school. That needs to be addressed. The cabinet secretary has to recognise that we need to put more resources in for additional support needs so that every child has given the right chance and we truly look up. Finally, I will quickly say that we talked about the child payment. Child payment is great. It is tackling poverty, but we need to tackle the root causes of poverty. The greatest tools that we have to do that is education, training and skills that will equip children for the future. That is where our focus needs to be. We need more resources. I hope that the cabinet secretary will bring forward more debates in Government time, so that we have more time on this issue. I welcome the chance to speak in this debate this afternoon, so thank you Pam Duncan Clancy for bringing it to the chamber. I would like to start by echoing and reflecting the comments from Liam Kerr that stated that education is the foundation of a successful Scotland, and indeed Alex Rowley has just echoed that further. During the education committee this morning, the cabinet secretary stated that she accepted that it will be a challenge to get it right for Scotland's teachers and that, in the pay negotiations last year, there was not enough action on teachers' working conditions. We know that reduced contact time, pupils' behaviour and violence in the classrooms are all issues that need to be dealt with and all impact on teachers' working conditions. Arguably, the most pressing one is the deterioration of pupil behaviour since the pandemic. That is something that has been raised over and over by teachers and parents. Violent and disruptive behaviour in our classrooms has been getting worse. Back in June last year, the committee held a round table with parent groups, teachers, education psychologists, children's rights organisations, and again, as Alex Rowley has mentioned in his remarks, the cabinet secretary hosted summits back in June, August and November last year. To be frank, I have not got a sense that there has been any substantive recommendations or actions or changes that have come from those summits. The Scottish Government behaviour and Scottish schools report found that levels of disruption have increased across all surveyed categories. Low-level disruptive behaviour, disengagement and serious disruptive behaviours have all increased since 2016, along with a decline in most reported positive behaviours. Instances of verbal abuse and physical aggression towards pupils and staff have risen. The proportion of secondary school support staff having experienced violence between pupils has risen from less than one in five to almost one in two. Most teachers in school staff are witnessing and it is being subject to considerable instances of negative behaviour. Two thirds of staff are encountering general verbal abuse and almost three in five physical aggression and over two in five have experienced physical violence between pupils in the classroom in the past week. I know that those are not conditions that I would want to work in, so why are we subjecting our teachers to that? The report stated in secondary schools that the behaviour that is most commonly reported as having the greatest negative impact was pupils using and looking at mobile phones or tablets when they should not. More than half of secondary school staff said that this was one of the three behaviours that had the greatest negative impact, so it will not come as a surprise as I am talking about that in the chamber again. Of course, most pupils are well behaved, but all suffer from the consequences of disruption in their classrooms. They are vulnerable to distraction and experts have recognised that and recognised the addictive nature of constant access to social media. I am sure that many of us could look at the mirror on that as well. We know that mobile phones are not the only cause of growing school discipline problems. The report also cites incidents of drug and alcohol consumption, but when mobile phones are a significant contributor, then their removal must surely be part of the solution. Banning mobile phones in schools will not solve the deep-rooted problems, but it will help. We are also facing problems across the country of ghost pupils, and I want to talk about that briefly. Hundreds of pupils in Scotland failed to attend a single day of school last year. The number of those under 16 who recorded zero attendance rose to a record high of more than 600, including more than 300 primary 1 to 7 children. While the reasons for the absence vary, one senior teaching union officials said that they included rising violence in classrooms and cuts to education budgets. The starting numbers come in the wake of analysis last month by the programme for international student assessment, which reported a long time ago. The member is literally about to conclude because she is over her time. I was trying to conclude. With that, for the pressure on my statement at the end, I will conclude my remarks, but it is important that we need to address violence in the classroom. I now call Bill Kidd to be followed by Brian Whittle up to four minutes, Mr Kidd. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to speak in today's debate, having spoken in the previous debate on education brought to us just last month, and as a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. During the debate in December, I, along with others, highlighted the fact that the latest PISA report came on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw unprecedented disruption across society, including to the provision of education. At least accept the Scottish performance in PISA during the Covid years dropped remarkably quicker than the rest of the United Kingdom under the same circumstances. I was pressed by that question. I reiterate for anyone looking to draw a direct comparison between Scotland and England's PISA results and the link to educational standards in terms of compliance with OECD standards, that the UK Government's own report found that England's education did not meet the PISA standards of reporting in its sampling. The sample was found to be biased because more higher-achieving pupils participated than lower-achieving pupils. Ultimately, the OECD estimated that that likely resulted in an upward bias in the reported results of approximately seven or eight points. Those are important points to note to be aware of when we speak today. However, I do not say them to lessen the challenges that are faced in a welcome to today's debate. Labour Party's motion today quite rightly focuses on the need to identify a potential timeframe for educational reform. I believe that the Government amendment seeks to address the issue in stating that it welcomes a sector-wide agreement on the need for a holistic package of education reforms that it agrees should be taken forward in partnership with Scotland's teachers and young people. I believe that this is a reasonable approach to take. I believe that it is essential that we consult those at the heart of the system, and that means asking those who use, shape and deliver their education to allow their voices to be heard, namely the voices of young people, parents, carers and, crucially, teachers. I encourage all those groups to participate in the consultation to ensure that their voices are heard. I know that the education committee scrutinising any proposals will ensure that they are. Regarding the specific issues of potential teacher conditions that are highlighted in today's motion, I was also reassured by the cabinet secretary's comments when giving evidence to the education children and young people committee this morning in response to questioning than she was pressed on a specific timetable for reform. The cabinet secretary indicated that the Government was expecting the commission's report to be published later this month. I believe that this will provide much-needed clarity on both the type of reform envisaged and the timetable towards achieving such, and I look forward to scrutinising this report. In conclusion, I understand the heartfelt commitment to seeking reforms, to delivering an educational system that works for all, and I welcome it. I also welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to seeking to identify and implement reforms that will, hopefully, advance those aims. I believe that the Government's amendments setting out steps that it has and are taking coupled with assurances from the cabinet secretary regarding potential timetables, which means that we are moving in the right direction. I encourage members to support today's Government amendment. I thank the Labour Party for keeping the SNP-Green Government's mismanagement of the Scottish education system at the forefront of debate in this chamber. That falls on from the Scottish Conservative debate last month on the very same topic. As we see, once again we get obfuscation, diversion and increasing attempts to blame anything but to accept that the outcomes over the tenure of the SNP-Green Government lies squarely with them. After all, education is totally devolved to Scotland, as is health, both portfolios directly linked, as I will discuss later. Education is the cornerstone of every portfolio, as I highlighted in my discussion with my friend Mark Macphill during the Conservative education debate last month, although cross-bortfolio issues are most definitely not the fault of our educators. Solutions to just about every challenge facing our country are rooted in a flourishing education system that gives pupils every opportunity to develop their talents and be all they can be. When the Government gets education wrong, we see that reflected in all other portfolios. Hence Scotland's continuing poor health record, the worst in Europe with drug and alcohol deaths, the worst in Europe, obesity levels, the highest in Europe, heart disease, COPD, MSK and arthritis conditions, mental health levels, especially in our schools at epidemic levels. We need to tackle poor physical and mental health, poor behaviour, attainment and poor nutrition in our schools. The fact is that the two topics for debate this afternoon, such as health and education, are intrinsically linked, which in turn links directly to Scotland's underperforming economy compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, with our poor health record being a significant drag on back to the economy. A fact is that this Scottish Government just cannot seem to get their collective heads round. The solution is about creating a different teaching and learning environment that empowers and supports and frees teachers to do the job that they are trained for and that they are passionate about, but enthuses our school pupils that aligns them to the huge opportunities that should be available to them as we transition towards a greener economy. It is about developing our youth to be confident and resilient, aspirational risk takers and innovators that Scotland has such a world reputation for. There is a marked decline in physical activity, in music, in art and drama, and much of the extracurricular activity that is once enjoyed by our school pupils. Those activities draw in active minds. They give an outlook for enthusiasm. They deliver aspiration and self-discipline in an appreciation for application. They help to create an environment where learning is varied and exciting. Weaving those activities into the daily life of school pupils, along with extolling the exciting world that a transition to a greener economy should bring, is an education system that we should all be able to get behind. Unfortunately, that is lost on the cabinet secretary and her Government, who leave our education system mired in bureaucracy and red tape. This Parliament should be able to come together on such an important issue as education. The SNP amendment continues to try and ignore the real issues with their education policies. The Scottish Government's response to PISA results highlights that they are unable to respond to their own failures in education and are actually just managing its decline, along with many other portfolios. Curriculum and Excellence was voted in by this Parliament from across the chamber, but it is in its implementation that the Scottish Government once again fail. When are they going to recognise that it is only outcomes that matter? I will not be holding my breath. I now call Ruth Maguire, who will be the last speaker in the open debate. I think that it is fair to lay out challenges in a system as important as the education system, and it is fair to challenge Governments. It is also fair to point out that the picture could not be more different between Scotland and the rest of the UK when it comes to investing in education. Scotland has introduced and funded ground-breaking policy to support and protect our young people from Westminster's ruinous financial policy of austerity and public sector funding cuts. I hear Mr Whittle shouting outcomes from a sedentary position. The outcome of austerity is a child hungry and unable to concentrate in school, or uncomfortable walking to school in the rain because they do not have a coat to wear. That would be an outcome of austerity. Mr Whittle, please, not from a sedentary position. Today, the Opposition motion focuses on the EIS campaign stand up for quality education, which is about 3K areas. Workload, ASN and pupil behaviour are all very important topics. Today, I would like to focus my remarks on behaviour, specifically gender inequality and violence against women and girls in Scottish schools. Recently, the Education, Children and Young People Committee undertook a very short but valuable piece of work on equally safe and the experiences of young women and girls in education. I am very grateful to all who participated. I want to thank them. The first-hand testimony and generous sharing of their experience and ideas was very helpful. It is regrettable that the committee does not have the capacity at present to prioritise further work in this area. However, the briefing from Zero Tolerance is a useful prompt in reminding us that caring about tackling those things is not just for white ribbon day, 16 days of action, but all year round. I want to thank them and share some of the facts from it with the chamber. I hope that colleagues will recognise that, in looking to address poor behaviour in schools, there is a need to be cognisance of gender inequality. Gender equality in education will tackle violence, bullying issues, attendance and attainment. Zero Tolerance Scotland has pointed out that almost 70 per cent of pupils experience sexual harassment in the three months prior to being asked. 34 per cent experienced unwanted sexual touching. Six times as many women have experienced serious sexual assault as compared to men. 55 per cent of survivors experience their first sexual assault between the ages of 16 and 20, and around one in five girls and young women do not feel safe in school. Girls of colour are less likely than white girls to feel safe in school. Teachers also experience this violence, with one in four female secondary school teachers reporting that they were sexually harassed or abused in the previous 12 months. Boys' violence makes girls feel unsafe and affects their school attendance and learning. Fear of violence impacts girls' ability to participate fully in education. Fear of sexual harassment prevents a quarter of girls from speaking out in class. Horrifically, the report shares that fear of being raped, followed home and or kidnapped, affects girls' school pupils' sleep, concentration or ability to fully participate in learning, and girls' living in deprived areas are more likely to say that fear of sexual harassment holds them back. I see that I am running out of time, so I cannot share much more of the girls and young women's testimony. I support zero tolerance in their asks that the Scottish Government recognise and prioritise violence against women and girls in all the discussions about behaviour and violence in schools. I am pleased to be closing the debate today on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, and I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy, Martin Whitfield and Labour for allowing us the opportunity to discuss the issues around Scottish education. I think that we can all agree with Scottish Government's international council for education advisers, and the irony is not lost on me when a reviewing body states that time for commission reviews is now over. It certainly focuses on the issue. I believe that education, childcare, wraparound care and all forms of lifelong learning need to be thoroughly debated, and I have to say that it is disappointing to me that opposition parties have used their allocated time so often to ensure that that is done. I thank Bill Kidd for highlighting that he spoke in the last debate, which was the Scottish Conservative one on PISA. I would like to highlight again, as many have in the chamber's debate today, to the Government that we would really appreciate a really good chance to do that in Government time. I will reference from our colleague Liam Kerr this morning in the education and young people's committee referencing the Conservatives' new deal for teachers. I wonder if that is publicly available, or if it is on their website, or perhaps she could get a copy to me. I believe that you will be sent a copy, so there you go, we will be able to get that to you. I would like to take a few moments to highlight some of the contributions that have come up today. Behaviour in the classroom. It is important to highlight that again. I accept that Ruth Maguire and Sue Weber have both raised that issue. It is important that we accept that there is a problem in our classrooms when it comes to behaviour. We are expecting our teachers to cope beyond and above and beyond with the issues that come forward. It is also right that Ruth Maguire highlights the concerns regarding gender-based violence with women and girls, and it is harrowing to hear that one in four secondary school teachers are affected, female teachers are affected in this way. It would be wrong of me not to go past without also highlighting that Sue Weber has again mentioned quite rightly the concerns of mobile phone use in classrooms and how distracting that can be. It has also been mentioned today by contributors from Willie Rennie and Michael Marra that we are eight years into 10 years of reform. I think that it is worrying that we are so far in on that process, but we do not have the reform in the classrooms to back that up. Teaching conditions, that is the crux of the matter and things that I will be talking on a little bit more later on, but it is important to highlight that by both Pam Duncan-Glancy, Liam Kerr and Alex Rowley that our teacher conditions in our classrooms are not acceptable. I also want to highlight, as the last point on this, that breakfast and lunch provision is paramount. It has been promised that Pam Duncan-Glancy brought it up, Liam Kerr brought it up and I would also like to do so. It is important that our pupils get access to proper nourishment so that they can achieve all in the classroom that they can go on to achieve. One last point is that I accept that the PISA results, Kate Forbes did highlight that it does matter. We are trying to build a nation of students who can go on and achieve in a global job market. Therefore, it is important that we look at what is happening across the world and make sure that our young people are able to go out there and achieve globally. In conclusion, I also want to highlight that the main content of the motion and the Scottish Conservative amendment highlight the role of our teachers and the need for action when it comes to work expected and the lack of follow-through on promises made by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Conservatives has already been stated and announced our new deal for teachers at conference last year. A new deal that will include providing head teachers with more powers over their schools, including more budgetary autonomy with recruitment of their staff— Ms McCall, you will need to conclude. Oh, my apologies. As you say, this new deal for teachers will be able to be passed around for anyone that wants to do it. Thank you, Ms McCall. Thank you very much. I now call on Cabinet Secretary Jennifer Ruth to close on behalf of the Scottish Government up to four minutes. Please, Cabinet Secretary. Presiding Officer, I have forgotten that it was a snow day in Ms Forbes's constituency and in other parts of the country. Always the most exciting, perhaps stressful time of the year when it starts to snow and delivering a lesson. My thoughts are with my former colleagues at this time. I agree with Pam Duncan-Glancy on the power of education to elevate to open doors. Willie Rennie described today's motion as a list of problems. Let me attempt to respond to some of the points in a constructive way, as Liam Kerr assured us, that the Conservatives were keen to engage, although I am not necessarily sure that Mr Whittle received that memo. Pam Duncan-Glancy spoke about the EIS's campaign to stand up for education. I look forward to engaging with my former trade union on those substantive issues, highlighted by the campaign, on the specifics that Ms Duncan-Glancy and a number of other members raised support for additional support needs. It is important to say that the Government is investing record levels in supporting additional support needs, so £830 million in 2021-22 alone. We also provide an additional investment of £15 million a year to support local authorities in the employment of support assistance, but I accept the challenge in relation to the increase in additional support needs in our classrooms. Figures in the last year show that additional support needs have now increased again, published at the end of last year. That, in part, has been driven by changes in relation to measurements some years ago. However, through the additional support for learning action plan that we are working on with COSLA, we have identified a number of actions that I am keen to update the chamber with in the coming weeks. Of course, we have heard from members that we will be having a debate in Government time, and I intend to use that to respond quite fully to some of the proposals in relation to the Haber review. As we heard from Ms Forbes, I set out a plan at the end of term to reverse some of the concerning patterns that we have seen in our schools post Covid. We must not suggest that Covid has not disrupted education, it has, and it continues to do so. That is having an impact. We already know that the PISA edition this year was referred to by the OECD as the Covid edition. Mr Marra asked a very specific question in relation to our school and its region. I think that the Westergateway primary school, and he will know, because we have exchange correspondence on this, that the Government had to take some really difficult decisions in relation to the third round of LEAP funding. I should say that, because of investment from this Government that, since 2007, the quality of Scotland's school estate has improved from around 60 per cent, being in good or satisfactory condition, to over 90 per cent. There are a number of schools, though, that are not yet there. I accept that. These schools are the statutory responsibility of local authorities, but I have committed to have the Scottish Futures Trust work with COSLA and Scottish Government on identifying the action that we can take away to take away on that point. The central risk in this is that if the school is not begun to be built by 2025, all the money that has been committed by the residents, £2.5 million to date, will be lost. There is a real imperative for the Government, if it can, to try and drive that pace to make sure that we can make use of that money and that there is less of an impact on the public purse. I implore for the cabinet secretary to take the urgency on board. I hear the urgency from Mr Marra. I would encourage him to engage with Dundee City Council on this. I also point out that the council were awarded nearly £50 million for priority projects through the Schools for the Future programme. We have prioritised local authorities that have not received funding from the LEAP programme, but I hear the challenge that I face and that I was talking to the committee about this morning, is where in the education and skills budget that additionality should come from, or where in the Scottish Government's budget. Of course, as we move forward in relation to stage 1 of the budget, if Mr Marra has ideas on where that may be drawn, I am more than happy to hear them. Alex Rowley spoke about resources. Of course, this year's Scottish Government education and skills portfolio budget has increased in terms of resource by 4.3 per cent. That is despite only having a 1 per cent uplift in real terms across the Scottish Government from our settlement from the UK Government. It is important to say that we have prioritised education spending. I hope that that is recognised by the Opposition in relation to the choices— The cabinet secretary is literally about to conclude her remarks. We have had to make apologies, Presiding Officer. I am disappointed that we have not heard some of the positives around Scotland's education system this afternoon. We do have the lowest pupil-teacher ratio in the UK. We have the best-paid teachers in Scotland in the UK. I accept the challenge, but I am keen to work with the Opposition. Thank you, cabinet secretary. I call on Martin Whitfield to close on behalf of Scottish Labour up to five minutes. I am very grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer. It is indeed a pleasure to close this interesting debate. Before I get into some of the contributions, I would like to thank those outside of this place that submitted briefs, and particularly the General Teaching Council of Scotland, which I know has not been mentioned, but their independent role as the safeguard gateway to the professionalism of teachers is vastly important. Magic Breakfast obviously talked about with regard to the breakfast, but I would also like to play tribute to Ruth Maguire and also to my colleague Pauline McNeill with regard to the zero tolerance briefing that has come, which is salutary reading. I think to listen to the contribution of Ruth Maguire about the reason that girls cannot go into school is a truly tragic insight into the challenges that not just girls but a lot of our young people are facing about how they engage with education and how they engage with our schools. I was disappointed with the cabinet secretary's opening statement, I have to say, because of the tone that was taken. It is the role of Opposition to hold the Government to count, and there have been offers to work across this chamber if it is very short because of time. I have to say to the member that the tone in the Labour Party's motion does not recognise a single positive in Scottish education. Now, he should accept, as a member of the Opposition, that I am looking to work with the Opposition, but it is rather difficult when there is not a single piece of recognition about the good work that is happening in Scotland's schools with Scotland's pupils and our teachers. I am very grateful for that contribution, but of course I could similarly look to the amendment proposed and ask where is the apology, where is the recognition, where is the responsibility of the Scottish Government towards our young people, towards our parents and towards our families and our teachers, because if we are going to have cross-party understanding, if we are going to do what the people who watch this place from the outside continually ask us to do, to work together, there needs to be a recognition of what the challenge is, and there is no recognition of the challenge in the amendment moved by the SNP Green Government today. I think it's interesting that contributions from behind the cabinet secretary or rather remotely in the case of Kate Forbes and indeed Ruth Maguire and indeed Bill Kidd, that we have quite rightly addressed the problems that education has. There are challenges in our education system and that is, as a number of people said, not to turn the fire on our teachers, certainly not to turn the fire on our families and certainly not to turn the fire on our young people, but to hold responsible those who have that treasured responsibility to guide and support our young people through their childhood and transition into adulthood. That's where the responsibility lies. That's where the years of lack and neglect, the years of reports, committees and round tables, the years of the failure to produce a plan that can survive more than a couple of years before being given up on, has led us to a position when we are in a dire strait. I had a great pleasure this morning out in Edinburgh meeting with groups that work with young people who can't engage in education because of homelessness, because of challenges, and I am conscious of time, but they spoke about the fact that there needs to be a relationship between people for you to get to that point where you can understand their challenge and start to make it better. When the current Cabinet Secretary came into post, she brought with her one of the most valuable assets, a deep and proper understanding of teaching and a real empathy with regard to teachers. I urge her to go back to that view, to seek out the advice, to seek out the ideas and then come to this place and give us a timetable for when we are actually going to see changes, so that children who are now 16 years of age and entering the final years of their education can, if not possibly benefit, possibly see a light at the end of the tunnel for their younger siblings coming forward. And we've talked about the challenge of COVID and we admit that there was a COVID pandemic. That has been enormously challenging in our education system and possibly it is the young people who lived through that period and are still in school and further, who may carry the harm of COVID long into the future, but the challenges existed beforehand. And to deny that, to not admit that there was problems coming way back, we can go back to 2016, the PISA results that led to the departure from PISA. And again, we're starting to hear language that indicates perhaps the confidence in PISA is not there. This is an opportunity. There is a feeling across this chamber that help and assistance will be given with regard to it, but it requires engagement rather than throwing from trench to trench about ideas. There have been some good ideas raised today by many people. I would urge the Cabinet Secretary and her colleagues to look at those and to engage. I'm grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Whitfield. And that concludes the debate on stand-up for quality education. And it is now time to move on to the next slide of business, but before which, there'll be a short pause to allow front bench teams to change positions, should they so wish. Thank you.