Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 24 January 2017.
I heard in your answer, First Minister, that you talked about pay and conditions in Scotland. Actually, Scotland’s results in the PISA rankings collapsed, and that is no example to follow, I’d suggest to you, First Minister. You’ve had initiative after initiative since your tenure as First Minister, and, indeed, since Labour have been running education, since 1999. We’ve had teacher workload initiatives; we’ve had the regional consortia that have come in for special criticism today from Estyn, showing that there’s poor performance there with collaborative working. The secretary of the National Union of Teachers has said that there are significant barriers to improving teachers’ performance in schools and access to best practice. Do you recognise these significant barriers, First Minister? In particular, I go back to the point again: we’ve had initiative after initiative under your leadership, and yet we’re still getting Estyn reports seven years into your tenure as First Minister and you’ve set education as a priority. You’re failing, First Minister.