McAllan refuses pledge on school improvement as Pisa results slide
Scotland's Education Secretary Màiri McAllan has faced criticism for declining to guarantee that school standards will improve by 2029, after new figures showed maths and reading performance had fallen to a record low. The row follows the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) study, coordinated by the OECD to measure the skills of 15-year-olds, which found Scottish results had worsened since 2022. Opposition politicians and education experts accused the SNP minister of complacency and a lack of ambition at a time when Scottish pupils are said to be trailing their English counterparts by more than a year in maths and science.
Pressed on BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast on whether she could promise better Pisa results in three years, McAllan said curriculum changes "take time to bed in" and that a new curriculum due in 2028 would begin "improving matters" afterwards, but stopped short of a firm guarantee. Scottish Labour's Katherine Sangster called the response "an insult" to pupils, parents and teachers, while Scottish Conservative spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher branded it "an extraordinary attempt to defend the indefensible". Education figures including Keir Bloomer of the Commission on School Reform and Professor Lindsay Paterson of the University of Edinburgh described the results as "very disappointing" and suggested Scotland should look to England's approach for lessons.
- Scotland's maths and reading Pisa scores hit a record low.
- Minister McAllan couldn't guarantee improvement by 2029.
- Critics accuse SNP of complacency; urge copying England's methods.
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Scotland's education system has been under scrutiny for years over falling standards, particularly compared with the rest of the UK. The Pisa study is an international assessment run by the OECD every three years, testing 15-year-olds in dozens of countries on reading, maths and science, and is widely used to compare how different education systems are performing. Scotland's results have been on a downward trend since the mid-2010s, and education has traditionally been an area the SNP, which has led the Scottish Government since 2007, has pointed to as a key priority.
Màiri McAllan became Scotland's Education Secretary as part of a reshuffle, taking on responsibility for a school system that ministers have promised to improve for over a decade, including a past pledge by the SNP to make closing the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils "the defining mission" of government. Curriculum for Excellence, Scotland's school curriculum framework, has faced repeated criticism from academics and opposition parties, and a new curriculum is planned for 2028.
This matters because education policy is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, meaning decisions are made in Edinburgh rather than Westminster, and it remains one of the most closely watched measures of the SNP government's domestic record. With a Scottish Parliament election due in 2026, school standards are likely to remain a significant point of political debate.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Those sympathetic to McAllan's position argue that refusing a rigid three-year pledge reflects honesty rather than complacency, since education systems respond slowly to reform and a new curriculum only arriving in 2028 cannot realistically be judged by 2029 Pisa data. They would say that ministers who make specific, short-term promises on complex systemic outcomes often end up either fudging figures to meet them or abandoning sound long-term reforms for quick fixes, and that resisting political pressure to overpromise is itself a sign of seriousness about getting the underlying changes right rather than chasing headlines.
The case against
Critics contend that after years of declining results and repeated warnings, parents, pupils and teachers deserve a clear commitment to improvement rather than caveats about timelines, especially when neighbouring England appears to be achieving better outcomes with different policy choices. They would argue that refusing any pledge, however cautiously worded, risks signalling a lack of urgency or accountability from the minister responsible, and that setting a measurable goal is precisely what would drive the focus and pace of reform needed to reverse a record slide in standards.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Màiri McAllan comes under fire for having no ambition after she was unable to guarantee standards in schools will improve by 2029”.