In 2016, when international test results for school pupils were released, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: ‘Scotland used to be a beacon of excellence. It’s not anymore.’ Ten years later, things are worse. In the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test results in reading, maths and science, taken by 15-year-old pupils last year, Scottish pupils’ average scores slipped in reading, from 493 to 488, and maths, from 471 to 467. (Scotland’s maths score was 491 in 2015.) Science scores rose by eight points to 491 – but pupils were around a full year behind their English counterparts. Performance in all subjects was, according to the Scottish government’s report, ‘significantly below that achieved in a number of earlier Pisa cycles’. Rather than being one of the best in the world, SNP education secretary Màiri McAllan has been reduced to boasting that Scotland’s education system is ‘competitive by international standards’ and ‘above the OECD average on four measures out of five’.
England got the best average test results among the four home nations in all three subjects. In science, England’s score jumped from 503 to 516, worth around half a year of schooling. Maths and reading scores were flat. But flat was a success this year, when pupils’ performance fell in schools around the world. That meant England ranked in the top ten of the 91 countries and economies in all three subjects: eighth for science, ninth for reading, tenth for maths.
Although scores were broadly flat, the countries moved in different directions and the gap between England and Scotland grew, reaching 25 points in science, 25 in maths and nine in reading.
In recent years, England and Scotland made different bets on education, and now we’re seeing the results. England made the curriculum more knowledge-rich and emphasised facts, traditional subjects and exams over coursework. In Scotland, the Curriculum for Excellence, introduced from 2010, was designed to have a ‘holistic, coherent, and future‑oriented approach to learning’, developing four capacities: to make pupils successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. Traditional subject content was reduced, leading to ‘potential consequences for attainment and understanding’.
Those consequences have been seen in the fall in high-achieving pupils. In science, 7.9 per cent of Scottish pupils were top performers (they achieved ‘level five’ or above), in reading 7.3 per cent and in maths 7.2 per cent. In 2006, 8.4 per cent of Scottish pupils were top performers in reading – and 12.6 per cent in science and 12.4 per cent in maths. In 2006, the proportion of top-performing pupils in England was similar to those in Scotland. And last year, some 9.6 per cent in England were top performers in reading, 13.5 per cent in science and 13.7 per cent in maths – far above Scotland. Lower-performing pupils do a little better in England than Scotland – and high-performing ones far better, especially in maths and science.
Wales has imported Scotland’s model, having engaged Graham Donaldson, one of CfE’s architects, to review its curriculum. The resulting Curriculum for Wales, with four purposes and six ‘areas of learning and experience’ rather than subjects, began rolling out in 2022. Wales’s maths score fell ten points to 456, the lowest of any of the home nations, and Wales’s average scores are below the OECD average for all three subjects. This followed falls in 2022 that prompted the IFS to recommend ‘a greater emphasis on specific knowledge’.
Back in England, the Department for Education downplayed the results. Its briefing said reading and maths scores ‘haven’t improved in ten years’ and the scores are ‘not an argument for standing still’, bemoaning rising up the league tables ‘solely because other countries are declining’. Rather than admirable honesty, this seems like explaining why the results don’t count out of a desire to dismantle the system that delivered them. Education Secretary Lucy Powell has called the current system of prioritising academic subjects a ‘straitjacket’, bemoaned the ‘pressure’ of exams and said she wants to ‘replace the exam factory with the talent factory’. In Scotland, a review of the curriculum will ‘clarify’ expectations for knowledge. It sounds like Powell has learned the wrong lessons from Pisa and wants to copy a system that is failing pupils – especially the brightest.
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