 That concludes topical questions. The next item of business is a statement by Shirley-Anne Somerville on improving the education and life chances of all children and young people. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Shirley-Anne Somerville up to 10 minutes, cabinet secretary. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to provide this statement to Parliament today and it's a timely opportunity to take stock of our work to recover from the pandemic and accelerate progress on attainment. Before I do so, however, I would like to directly address the issue of the current industrial action. As I've said before, the teachers' strikes are in no one's interest, including pupils, parents and carers, who have faced significant disruption over the past three years. We are continuing to work closely with our union and local government partners to try and reach a deal that is fair and affordable for all concerned. As part of that, I spoke again to the general secretaries of the teaching unions over the past few days. Tops will continue over this week, and we will continue to focus on areas of compromise. While those constructive talks are on-going, we would continue to urge education unions to suspend their industrial action. However, while we work through that, it is also important that we maintain our work on excellence and equity. In December, we published the latest achievement of curriculum for excellence levels, ASAL stats, the 2020 national improvement framework and plan, and the stretch aims that each local authority has now put in place for closing the poverty-related detainment gap. Together, we set out the latest evidence for progress and our plans, shared with local government, for substantially eliminating the poverty-related detainment gap by 2026. There is much to be proud of and to celebrate in our early learning and childcare settings, our schools, community learning and development colleges and universities. That is demonstrated by young people achieving qualifications and awards, recognising their knowledge and skills, moving on to employment and starting new apprenticeships or courses in our colleges and universities. They are a credit to themselves and to those who have supported them through an extremely challenging period, and their resilience is an inspiration to us all. I also want to pay tribute to the dedication, commitment and hard work of our early years practitioners, our teachers, our community learning and development practitioners, our college and university lecturers and all those who work alongside them. The challenges of the pandemic are not yet over, and I recognise that we need to continue to support and nurture children and young people. Pre-pandemic, the poverty-related detainment gap was closing, but the negative impact of the pandemic cannot be ignored. Lost learning as a result of the pandemic was not unique to Scotland, and the attainment gap remains wider than pre-pandemic in other parts of the UK. For example, the Department for Education within the UK Government has said of the attainment gap in England that it was the largest since 2012, and I quote suggesting that disruption to learning during the Covid pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils. It is reassuring therefore that the latest ASOL data published on 30 December demonstrates that the approaches to Covid recovery and education in Scotland are working. As 2023 begins, we are in a strong position to make further headway. The percentage of pupils achieving the expected CFE levels in 2021-22 is higher than in 2021 for all primary school stages, with the largest single-year increase in primary school literacy and numeracy since 2016-17, the first year for which comparable data is available. There are also promising signs that the attainment gap is once again narrowing, with the biggest single-year decrease in the gap between primary numeracy and literacy levels since records began in 2016-17. For example, the gaps between the proportion of primary pupils from the most and least deprived areas who achieve their expected level have narrowed in both literacy and numeracy compared to 2021 and are now more similar to those seen before the Covid pandemic. However, there is no room for complacency. Atainment levels are still largely below pre-pandemic levels, and the attainment gap at S3 has widened since data was last collected in 2018-19. That will, of course, be monitored carefully. Although it is important to note that this is the first year that the impact of the pandemic has been visible at this level as no data was collected at this level last year, so any improvements made in the last year are not yet visible. There is still work to do to support education recovery and accelerate progress in closing the attainment gap, and that is why we have implemented a new accelerated approach for the Scottish attainment challenge programme, which includes a record investment of £1 billion over this parliamentary term. Those figures show that local authorities are well placed to make further progress in the coming year. As I set out in the local government stretch aims for tackling the attainment gap that I announced on 8 December, alongside health and wellbeing, literacy and numeracy are the recognised responsibility of all involved in education and are priority areas for the attainment challenge and our national improvement framework. The national response to improving mathematics partnership board is identifying opportunities to improve leadership and enhance professional learning of teachers to improve the learning experiences of children and young people. A parallel national response to improving literacy is at an early stage of development with the aim of implementing similar improvements for literacy. There is also an established network team of attainment advisers across local authorities providing improvement, support and numeracy literacy, health and wellbeing in every local authority. There is a strong focus on parental engagement via the Scottish attainment challenge and the Read, Write, Count initiative in early primary. Regional improvement collaboratives, supported by dedicated education Scotland staff, are focused on improving literacy and numeracy through collaborative work, which empowers the system at school, authority and regional level. Nevertheless, I recognise that, while we can see progress on some measures, we are not yet where we need to be on all indicators. I am the first to acknowledge that there is still work to do. That is why we have implemented a new accelerated approach for the Scottish attainment challenge, including that record investment of £1 billion. As we set out in 2016, the Government is committed to closing the poverty-related attainment gap and substantially eliminating that gap by 2026. I stand by that. That remains the policy and the objectives of the Government, and we are seeing progress. I have set out the details of our refreshed approach to the challenge previously to this chamber. Just last month, I also published the local stretch aims that local authorities have now put in place for the coming year. With ASL figures now published as well, we can see evidence that local authorities and schools are already making progress and are well placed to go further. We know that a ground-up approach works best in embedding improvements, so the stretch aims have been developed by local authorities using local knowledge, data and expertise, and they express each local authority's own ambitions for their learners. Ultimately, what matters in progress in schools is the implementation of the local plans that are supported through strategic equity funding that underpins those stretch aims. That is a shared responsibility. I do not expect teachers to achieve the progress that we need on their own. Schools and education services must collaborate across services and local partners to make progress. By introducing a requirement for local stretch aims, we are ensuring clear local ownership of progress, creating opportunities for learning and partnership working, and helping to address variation in attainment and progress, including the poverty-related attainment gap between schools and local authorities. Collectively, the core stretch aims set by local authorities show a great deal of ambition for both recovery and accelerating progress, and I welcome that level of ambition. Achieving those local stretch aims will require local government, central government and Education Scotland working together to ensure progress on attainment and outcomes continues and accelerates. The national discussion on Scottish education has provided an unprecedented opportunity for young people, parents, carers, teachers and practitioners to contribute to setting a long-term vision for Scotland education. I am delighted by the positive response from the public and stakeholders to that consultation, which ran from September to December last year. The views of those who take part will help us to develop a compelling and, I hope, consensual 20-year vision for education, and it will provide a further opportunity to enforce our shared endeavour to close the poverty-related attainment gap. Our vision for Scottish education will be launched in the spring and it will be accompanied by a call to action setting out short, medium and long-term goals that will build on the areas in which we are performing well and make the changes that we will be required to make to prepare learners for the economy, society and culture of the future. The national discussion will also help to inform Professor Hayward's independent review on qualifications and assessments. Her final report in May will pave the way for future reform to the qualifications and assessment system in Scotland to ensure that it meets the needs of learners and society in the 21st century. We will continue to ensure that the development of the new national education body supports our vision for a world-class education system that continues to adapt and change on its base in equity and excellence. Improving the education and life chances of all our children and young people is an ambition that is shared across the education system and remains central to our improvement agenda. The attainment challenge, a significant commitment with much bigger programme of investment and our spending plans for our 23-24 allocates £4.85 billion of funding across the education and skills portfolio, including measures to address the cost of living crisis and support for a range of measures to help children, parents and carers with the cost of the school day. In conclusion, I am committed to ensuring that every child and young person in Scotland has the same opportunities through their education. We know that we have the right curriculum in place for Scotland's children and young people. In their 21 report, the OECD found wide support for the curriculum for excellence, highlighting that it continues to be a bold and widely supported initiative and that its designs offer the flexibility needed to improve student learning further. In PISA's global competence assessment in 2018, which measures knowledge of international and sustainability issues and ability to apply knowledge, Scotland's average score was higher than the average of all participating countries. Police's evidence is encouraging. It shows that we are on the right track. Statistics published in December showed that the gap between school learners' levers from the most and least deprived areas entering a positive destination fell to 7.5 percentage points in 2021, the smallest gap on record showing the excellent progress that has already been made in terms of outcomes for school leavers. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. I will be grateful to all members who wish to ask a question that could press their request-to-speak buttons now. I know that the Opposition parties had requested this statement before Christmas in relation to the latest set of data that had been released. I am afraid that I do wish that we could feel some more sense of passion, some more sense of energy or urgency from the cabinet secretary, but that might be too much to ask because what we have had in the statement, I am afraid, is an exercise in spin. That is what we have had. We have had an example, we have had an exemplary demonstration of cherry picking and straw clutching, but the reality is that this is just spin, because, frankly, if this is what success looks like in the eyes of the cabinet secretary and this SNP Government, heaven help us. What would failure look like? The truth of the matter is, the more data we get, the more we can see that the cabinet secretary and this SNP Government are failing Scotland's children and young people, their parents and carers, and it just won't wash. Central to improving the education and life chances of children should be ensuring first-class learning environments in schools. Teachers are at the front line in all of this, and such is the inaction of this cabinet secretary. Teachers have been led to do something that is against all of their natures as professionals, to take strike action for the first time in 40 years. The cabinet secretary said last week that she was, quote, exceptionally disappointed to see a reduction in teacher numbers, because that is what these statistics show, but being disappointed, frankly, does not cut it. What action is the cabinet secretary going to take to increase the number of teachers, to increase the number of teachers on permanent contracts, to increase the number of classroom assistants and to reduce class sizes? Please, cabinet secretary, in answering this question—I put my comments through you, Presiding Officer—please don't pass the buck to the local authorities. Is the Government really not bothered any more about teacher numbers and classroom sizes? If they are bothered, where is the energy and where is the urgency? Not for the first time, we hear a critique about my delivery in the chamber and the way I preside over those things. It would appear to me that Stephen Kerr wants me to be more like him in the way that I am. I will politely decline the offer of being as passionate and energetic as Stephen Kerr is, because, quite frankly, what you do not see is much development of the opportunity to actually take this discussion forward. I have went over in my statement how the ASL data does show the impact of the pandemic, but it also shows signs of recovery. That is very important, and the impact of the pandemic is not just in Scotland, but, as I said in my statement, not just in the rest of the UK but indeed further afield as well. It is not surprising, although it is exceptionally disappointing, that we have seen a reduction in attainment and indeed a widening of the attainment gap during the pandemic, but, very importantly, what we see in the ASL statistics in December was signs of recovery and, importantly, also within the stretch aims of real determination within local authorities to carry that through for another year. Both the Scottish Government and Education Scotland will also ensure that we deliver our support to them. On teacher numbers, can I point to the context that we are in? Research by the education policy of institutes found at Scotland has more teachers per pupil than anywhere else in the UK. The overall pupil-teacher ratio remains at 13.2. It is the lowest since 2019. I am exceptionally disappointed that, despite the baselining of further additional funding to local government and an agreement with local government that money would be used for additional teachers, we did not see that happening. Mr Kerr talks about passing the buck. It is not about passing the buck, it is about accepting, realising and moving forward the fact that local authorities are the employers. I will be meeting with COSLA to ensure that what we have to do in the coming years is to use the funding that is given to local government to ensure that we are seeing additional teachers and, particularly, an improvement on the number of teachers that are on permanent contracts. I would hope that local authorities, as the employers, use that funding accordingly. Michael Marra The cabinet secretary is right to begin with a focus on the first national teacher strike in 40 years. Frankly, the huge disruption that is given to pupils and families right across Scotland—the teachers do not want to be out on strike—is now eight weeks since the last offer, and there have just been 22 more days of strike action announced. What is the cabinet secretary going to do to change her approach to the negotiations to get the breakthrough that we need? More of the same is clearly not going to cut it. I will be specific about the attainment gap at S3. The cabinet secretary will be very aware, given the conversations that I have in secondary schools when I travel across Scotland, speaking to teachers, speaking to headteachers and speaking to pupils, of the very particular problem that S3 cohort has. I have raised that previously with the cabinet secretary, given the huge disruption that he had in transition from primary school into secondary school. It is one thing to say that this will be monitored closely, as it states. It is not good enough. What is going to be done? What action? What help? What assistance? What resource? Or will those children, this cohort, just be another regrettable statistic for the rest of their lives? Can I address the point on the industrial action to begin with? I have said in recent media reports that we are some distance apart between what is affordable to the Scottish Government and local governments and what is acceptable to the unions in terms of what they wish to see. I have been clear all along that a 10 per cent pay increase, as has been requested by the unions, is simply unaffordable for the Government. If COSLA has made four offers now to the unions, I have totally accepted that those have been rejected. However, we need to see compromise on all sides on that. That is the only way to get to a resolution that is compromise, not just within the Scottish Government or indeed local government, but also from our union colleagues as well. That is the type of discussions that we are in over the past couple of weeks in particular. I look forward to those continuing in that manner. On the S3 cohort, Michael Mann is quite right to point to the particular concerns around the S3 cohort. We have discussed that before as well. I have mentioned the billion pounds worth of Scottish attainment challenge funding—that is an increase from £750 million in the previous Parliament—but we are also looking very carefully at what can be done through the stretch aims, the local government, the network of attainment advisers in Education Scotland, the universal support that is provided in Education Scotland and the specific targeted report where that is required. It is very important that we look to ensure that through everything that we are providing through our agencies—that is the best way that national government through our agencies can support the challenges that are happening within the S3 cohort—that we ensure that that targeted approach where it is necessary that we work with our agency and local government to ensure that we are delivering that awareness. Before we go on to the next question, it has taken eight minutes to get through the first two questions. I have 10 members who would still like to ask a question. I would be very grateful if we could pick up the pace here. I call Graham Day to be followed by Megan Gallacher. Thank you. Contrary to Stephen Kerr's spinning, of course, local authorities are the bodies responsible for school-age education and therefore have a pivotal role to play and tackle in the attainment gap in our schools. Across the country there is a variation in performance both in terms of overall attainment and the poverty-related attainment gap. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what work has been taken forward to address such variation, how, for example, is best practice being shared with those councils whose performance might benefit from that? I have already mentioned the local authority stretch aims, which are set by local authorities, but Education Scotland is working closely with local authorities to provide support on that. There is also a collaborative improvement work that is going on through Education Scotland and ADES to look at what more can be done to tackle that variation. I have also discussed the work again through Education Scotland that has been universal, targeted and intensive support where that is needed. I hope that that gives some examples of how we are attempting to tackle variation and assisting local authority colleagues to do so. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's Groundhog Day, yet another statement where data is stacked against this Government that has no meaningful solutions to improve education and the life chances of all children and young people. In questions must be asked over education reform funding. Gillian Hamilton warned that Education Scotland does not have the capacity and or capability to carry out that additional and very important work, and that will have significant and detrimental impact on some key policy areas, including the Government's flagship policy to close the poverty related attainment gap. Cabinet Secretary, how serious is this Government about education reform? I have to say, Presiding Officer, that this is one of the areas where I find it quite incredulous that I am being attacked by Opposition parties. Previously, I have always been criticised that too much has been done by staff within the SQA and Education Scotland. Now it would appear and I am being criticised for not giving those agencies more money to allow more staff to be responsible for the reform package. We will continue to ensure that there are resources within the agencies to carry out the necessary work in here, but we will also continue to ensure that the reform process is driven because I am responsible for it by the Scottish Government and by the decisions that I will take to include the reform process that I want to see, which will be radical. I welcome the latest achievement of Curriculum for Excellence. The level statistics show a positive improvement in achievement for pupils with the recorded additional support need, but there is clearly much to do. It is essential that children and young people with neurodiverse conditions go through an education system that is responsive to the needs of their conditions. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how the Scottish Government is going to ensure that children and young people with neurodiverse conditions are included and that their unique perspective is front and centre when planning for any progressive improvements? Carim Adam does raise a very important point in the work that we are doing. We are working closely with the young ambassadors for inclusion, including those who are neurodiverse, and they are closely involved in the delivery of the additional support for learning action plan. Those ambassadors will, of course, be consulted on the national discussion on the future of education in Scotland, because it is important that, as we look to that national discussion and we look to see further progress, everyone is involved in that and that includes our children and young people who are neurodiverse. Martin Whitfield, to be followed by Fulton MacGregor. I agree with the cabinet secretary about her commitment to ensure that every child and young person in Scotland has the same opportunities through their education. There are 15,324 school-aged children and young people identified as having additional support needs. However, on figures from 2020 to 2021, 17.4 per cent of pupils with learning disabilities did not achieve national qualification at level 2 or better, compared with 0.9 per cent of pupils without learning disabilities. I thank Enable Scotland for the figures. What will the cabinet secretary do to narrow that gap by 2026? Again, that follows in part at least from the question from Carim Adam. I would point Martin Whitfield to the work that is on going within the additional support for learning action plan. The work within that to recognise that success and achievements for those with additional support needs may be different and may vary. It is important that we work with those children and young people to ensure that we are setting our actions in the right way to ensure that they are achieving what they can deliver within Scottish education. I hope that the work that is going on within that action plan gives him some reassurance, but I certainly would be happy to meet him and to work with him. There is an area of concern to ensure that we are including the thoughts of children and young people and their requirements to see their success being recognised in a suitable way. Fulton MacGregor, to be followed by Willie Rennie. As the cabinet secretary said, all local authorities have set their straight aims for the years ahead, outlining their local ambition for tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. Should those local ambitions be realised and the rate of progress that we have seen in recent years continues, what impact will that have on the poverty-related attainment gap in areas such as my constituency of Coatbridge and Crescent and across Scotland generally? Collectively, local authorities' straight aims indicate significant ambition to drive accelerated progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap. For example, for literacy and numeracy in primary schools, collective local ambitions are to close the gap by more than seven percentage points compared to 2021, with 2022 data showing real progress towards those. I welcome that level ambition. I look forward to seeing progress towards those straight aims, recognising that the delivery of that is more important than, of course, the setting of the straight aims. We will certainly do everything that we can within national government and through our agencies to continue to support local authorities to do that work. Willie Rennie, to be followed by Emma Roddick. Before Christmas in response to me, the education secretary said, we will be on track to substantially eliminate the poverty-related attainment gap in primary schools. She failed to mention secondary schools, so will the election manifesto promise for secondary schools be met or not? Cabinet secretary, there has been absolutely no change in the extent of our determination over primary and secondary. I point yes to the success that we are having within primary schools. I have also recognised in the statement that there is more to do within the secondary schools aspect of it, but there has nothing that has changed in our determination to ensure that we deliver a substantial reduction in the poverty-related attainment gap by 2026, as exactly how we set out in that programme for government. Emma Roddick, to be followed by Ross Greer. The poverty-related attainment gap, and I think that it is important to give it its full name, obviously cannot be tackled by schools on their own. Could the cabinet secretary outline what steps are being taken by the Scottish Government to tackle the cause at its root, the drivers of poverty, and to mitigate the damaging actions of the Tories in Westminster? The member points quite rightly to the fact that tackling the poverty-related attainment gap is best done at source, and that is about the drivers of poverty. It is, quite frankly, exceptionally frustrating and disappointing that we continue to try and do this with one hand tied behind our back because of the changes that the UK Government has made to welfare and the continuation of those changes about pushing more and more children into poverty over the coming years. We will continue to do what we can through the Scottish child payment, through the Scottish welfare fund, but it is exceptionally difficult when you have the UK Government making life harder, rather than easier, for our children and young people. Ross Greer, to be followed by Natalie Dawn. We now have two sets of national qualifications results from years where exams did not take place and where pupils were graded based on continuous assessment and the professional judgment of their teachers. In those two years, the attainment gap was considerably narrower than in years where grades were based on high-stakes end-of-term exams, without pre-empting Professor Hayward's independent review. I wonder if the cabinet secretary could reflect on the difference in the attainment gap in particular on those two models of grading. Mr Greer is quite right that I will not pre-empt the work that Professor Hayward is continuing. I am sure that she will be looking at not just what has happened when we have had exams, but the fact that our experience over Covid has shown that there are different ways in which we can measure attainment and achievement within our schools. All of them are credible, as agreed by universities and employers. That presents us with opportunities for change should that be the right thing to do. I look forward to seeing Professor Hayward's report and her recommendations in due course. I welcome the Government's mission to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap at all levels of our education system. Can the cabinet secretary set out some detail on what measures are being taken by the Scottish Government to widen access to universities? We have recently announced the appointment of the new commissioner for fair access. Professor John McKendrick and I would welcome him to expose his experience in tackling poverty inequality in Scotland. I look forward to seeing what he has to say. I will point to some of the parting words of the previous fair access commissioner, who said that Scotland is continuing to set the pace when it comes to widening access to university, describing the Scottish Government's approach as an unambiguous success. Central to improving the educational life chances of children and young people should be ensuring first-class learning environments in schools. In the last academic year, there were over 20,000 physical or verbal attacks against school teachers and other members of staff. The former EIS president, Heather Hughes, said that teachers often feel unsupported when reporting those issues, and all too often they are made to feel the blame lies with them. It is therefore disappointing that there was no mention of such a serious issue in this statement. This Parliament has enough evidence to show that teachers are not reporting those attacks and disruption, and therefore the scale is unknown. Will the cabinet secretary commit to mandatory reporting of violence in the classroom so that that issue can be dealt with once and for all? The statement was that, as I think Opposition parties wished, mainly based on the statistics that came out in December, and that is where I focused many of my remarks. However, the member is quite right to point to the important issue of violence against staff. There is absolutely no excuse for violence, intimidation and threats for our staff in schools. We are working very closely with local authorities as the employers to ensure that we are doing everything that we can, and there are a variety of ways that we can see whether we can strengthen them. I am more than happy to look at any proposals to see what can be done and do so in conjunction with local authorities as the employers to take the issue as we do very seriously. I have spoken in the chamber previously about the importance of educating children on Scotland's ties with colonialism and the role BME people have had in Scotland's colonial past. It is currently not compulsory for schools in Scotland to educate students of any age on Scotland's colonial past and role in British empire and transatlantic slave trade. Mandatory primary education on such matters would ensure that, from young age, children have a realistic understanding of Scotland's history, what has been done to overcome this and how we can strive to improve this in the future. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a mandatory primary curriculum on Scotland's history with colonisation, slavery and empire is essential to ensure that all children receive an education that redresses historical inequality and supports the growth of our progressive and diverse nation? I think that the member will forgive me if this is not correct, but we have been trying to get some time in the diary and I have kept missing each other a little bit to discuss the issue in particular. I am more than happy to make sure that we do get that time to discuss it in greater detail than I can today. We do not have a compulsory curriculum within Scotland nor do I think that we should. We are, of course, working very consciously with our anti-racism in schools works to ensure that we are looking at how the curriculum can be changed and what changes can be done so that the issues that the member raises are dealt with. I hope that we will get the chance to have this proper conversation soon to see that we can explore that in further detail. Thank you. That concludes the ministerial statement. There will be a brief pause before we move on to the next item.