WELL that’s Scottish summertime over with the new school term starting tomorrow. Maybe now the weather will start to improve!

Not surprisingly at this time of the year, education is in the political spotlight with the Deputy First Minister John Swinney criticising his political opponents in the Scottish Parliament for being ‘consumed by doom and gloom’ about standards in Scotland’s schools. 

They in turn talk about declining rates of literacy and numeracy, teacher shortages, cuts to classroom support and ill-thought out governance reforms distracting from the real challenges facing our schools. The truth, as always, is somewhere in between.

There are many strengths in Scottish education. Most young people are achieving excellent exam results and moving into positive destinations when they leave school. Scotland does have a good education system, with lots of great teachers and support staff and engaged pupils.

However there can be no doubt that a shortage of quality teachers and potential head teachers; constant changes to the national curriculum placing excessive demands on the profession; and severely reduced council budgets are impacting on the ability of schools and the wider education service to meet the needs of all pupils.

Our recent exam results certainly confirm all is not doom and gloom in Inverclyde’s schools.

The number of pupils gaining three or five Higher awards in S5 at Inverclyde Council’s schools is the highest ever.

In S5 more than a third — 33.5 per cent — achieved three passes and the number gaining five rose to 13.8 per cent.

Results for S6 pupils show another record year with almost two out of three — 64.5 per cent — Inverclyde pupils leaving school with at least one Higher qualification. That figure has risen year-on-year for over 10 years.

Inverclyde schools have also achieved their best ever performance at Higher with 43.4 per cent of S6 pupils leaving school with three awards and coming close to matching last year’s record (28.9 per cent) with 28.7 per cent leaving school with five awards.

The number of S4 pupils achieving five or more National 5 passes is at a 10-year high at 38.2 per cent.

Of course we should never be complacent about these results and always strive to do better. While most young people in our schools are achieving good results a significant minority are not. We need to ensure that these young people receive the right level of support to achieve their potential.

There is already clear evidence that focusing our attainment challenge funding on children, and crucially their families, in greatest need is starting to pay dividends.

While the new Pupil Equity Funding allocated directly to schools is also welcome this comes at the expense of other council services.

Children spend approximately 14 per cent of their year at school. If we truly are to get it right for every child and close the attainment gap we need to address the challenges many of them and their families face the remaining 86 per cent of the time out with the school gates. 

Continuing cuts to other local authority services, which these families rely on, can only undermine our progress on education.

We need the Scottish Government and the parliament to recognise this. If they want a truly world class education system they should use the powers they have to provide the necessary resources.

Meanwhile we in the council are continuing to invest in our schools to ensure our children and young people have quality learning environments.

This summer has seen work start on the new St Ninian’s Primary School and Greenock’s west end early years facility.

Major refurbishments are under way at Moorfoot and Lady Alice Primary schools and the Bluebird Family Centre.

Work will start soon on a new home for Glenbrae Children’s Centre and planning is in progress for the refurbishment of St Mary’s Primary School and an extension to Gourock Primary School.

In these challenging times giving our children and young people the best start in life continues to be our top priority.