1. To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the day. (S5F-00949)

Later today, I have engagements to take forward the Government’s programme for Scotland.

Thank you. This week, the education secretary announced that he would be delaying his education reform plans because he had received more than 1,000 submissions and needed more time to—in his words—chew them over.

If I personally promise to write 1,000 submissions opposing the First Minister’s unwanted plan for a second referendum, will she chew them over and dump that as well?

The First Minister:

Education reform is a serious matter that I would have hoped all members in the chamber would want to discuss in a serious way. We have had the consultation on governance reform and we have received more than 1,000 responses to that consultation. It is right and proper that the education secretary considers all those responses and then comes to Parliament with our proposals on the way forward.

Of course, the governance review is only part of our education reform programme. We have our attainment challenge, which is now up and running. Our pupil equity funding is making sure that, from the start of the coming financial year, £120 million will go directly to headteachers to help them with the work of closing the attainment gap. We have our national improvement framework in place. We are now publishing more data about the performance of our schools than ever before and, of course, from August this year, that data will be informed by new standardised assessment.

I have made very clear on many occasions the priority that I attach to making sure that we continue to raise standards in our schools and—crucially—that we close that stubborn attainment gap. I would hope that Ruth Davidson and all members in the chamber will get behind us as we do that.

There we go—education reform is on the slow train. [

Interruption

.] Let us dig a little into the education secretary’s claim that he is still making up his mind about some of the education reform issues, because I do not think that it stacks up.

Two years ago, a charity called the Hometown Foundation submitted proposals to the Scottish National Party Government to set up a series of community-run pilot schools across Scotland. It was told that it would get an answer soon, but it is still waiting. Finally, in November last year, Hometown wrote to Mr Swinney. I have the letter here. Hometown says that

“we have ... lost our patience” with the whole process, which

“has been a series of false dawns.”

The education secretary says that he needs more time but is it not the truth—as we see from Hometown’s experience—that the Government has made up its mind; it just will not say so?

The First Minister:

No, that is not the case. What we have said to Hometown and indeed what we have said to other interests is that these decisions require—rightly and properly, I would have thought—to be taken in the context of the governance review.

The governance review is one part of our wider programme of education reform and when there is a consultation with the potential for some far-reaching reforms in education, it is absolutely right that we take time to consider the responses and to consider the way forward.

That is what I think that people expect us to do.

As we do that, the other strands of our reform programme are well under way. There is the attainment challenge, as I said. There is pupil equity funding, and no member of this Parliament should underestimate—I know that no headteacher in this country underestimates—the importance of giving £120 million directly to headteachers so that they can decide on and fund for themselves measures to improve attainment in schools. Standardised assessment will start in schools across the country from August this year, further informing the data that we publish, so that we know in detail how our schools are performing and where schools are doing well and where they need to do further work to improve.

That is an ambitious and serious programme of reform. I think that Ruth Davidson has said in the past that she supports reforms to education. Instead of coming to this chamber and sounding as if she opposes what we are doing, is it not about time that she got behind the reforms that we are taking forward?

The First Minister talks about her delayed governance review and says that we all have to wait for it, but in its letter Hometown told her Government that it was more than able to crack on with its pilot projects without disrupting the review at all. What was the reply that it received from our Government? I have that here, too. It says that John Swinney is “not prepared” to do it.

The deal is that the Government sits on fresh ideas for two years, then says that we have to wait on a review, and then announces that the review has been delayed, because council elections are on their way. The First Minister said that education reform would be her “defining mission”. Given that one example, who does she think she is kidding?

The First Minister:

I spent Tuesday afternoon in a meeting with John Swinney and our international council of education advisers, and I noticed that as I was doing that Ruth Davidson was publishing a report on the constitution. I am not sure that I will take any lectures from her on priorities in government.

The truth of the matter is that it would make no sense at all, even for a Conservative—I know that common sense does not always characterise the decision making of Conservatives—to have a review of governance and then pre-empt the outcome by deciding what track we will go down. We will consider carefully the responses to the consultation and then, rightly and properly, John Swinney will come to this Parliament and set out the way forward.

As I said, as we are doing that, we will get on with the other strands of reform, which are already starting to see difference across our education system, empowering headteachers and directly giving them the funding that they need to make a difference, and ensuring that we are able to tell exactly how our schools are performing. That is the kind of action that I said was a priority, and that is the action that we are taking.

Just this week, a report showed that—despite the moans of the Opposition—in the last financial year for which we have this information, real-terms spending on education in local authorities went up. That is yet more evidence of the priority that is given to education. I know how important education is to me; if it is so important to Opposition members it is about time they got behind this Government’s reforms instead of continuing to come to this chamber and simply moan.

If this is so important to the First Minister, why does she keep kicking the can down the road? The Hometown Foundation said in its letter to Mr Swinney:

“This is really not a great demonstration of meaningful engagement with stakeholders or a good start in trying to empower teachers, parents and communities to achieve excellence and equity in education.”

Hometown is not wrong. A year and a half ago—a year and a half ago—the First Minister staked her reputation on reforming Scotland’s schools. What have we seen since then? We have seen literacy standards slipping, numeracy standards sliding and curriculum for excellence failing, and now we have seen her education secretary stalling.

The First Minister keeps putting her referendum on the front foot, but she is putting everyone else’s child’s education on the back burner. Has her Government got its priorities all wrong?

The First Minister:

I do not know about the whole issue of putting something on the front foot; how it appears to me is that every time Ruth Davidson stands up in this chamber all she manages to do is shoot herself in the foot. I want to talk about education, but she continually tries to shoehorn in mentions of independence and a referendum—when, of course, the only reason there is any talk of that at all is the reckless behaviour of the Tories in taking us out of the European Union against our will.

Let me get back to my priority, which is education. It seems to me that Ruth Davidson is saying that we should not consult, or that, if we consult, we should not then bother to listen to what people say. Perhaps that is the approach that the Conservatives at Westminster have taken, which is why they have a massive back-bench rebellion on their hands right now over school funding—because the Conservatives are reducing the funding that many schools will have. We will continue to take this forward by listening to people and then making decisions about the best way forward.

Ruth Davidson asks what we are doing to back up the priority. I have already told her what is happening in our schools. Perhaps she should get into more of our schools and find out what is happening in them, instead of publishing papers about the constitution. What is happening in our schools is our attainment challenge; our pupil equity funding, which is going directly to headteachers; the introduction of standardised assessments to inform teacher judgments; and the publication of more data than ever before so that we can determine how well our schools are doing and what more we need to do to support those who work at the front line in our education system. I will leave Ruth Davidson moaning on the sidelines and I will get on with my priority of raising attainment in our schools and closing the attainment gap. I have said that that is my priority, and it will continue to be so.