RUTH Davidson has been condemned for her “legendary flip-flopping” at First Minister’s Questions after criticising the SNP’s education policy.
Nicola Sturgeon added that the Tories do not have an “iota of principle” after she hit back at claims there were gaps in data used to track schools’ performances.
Davidson alleged that parents were being "left in the dark" as to whether standards of literacy and numeracy were improving.
The First Minister pointed out that there was now more data than ever available to help track schools’ performance.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon slams Ruth Davidson for 'legendary flip-flopping'
Davidson said that while new national assessments have been brought in, there would be a five-year gap in knowledge, after the previous survey which measured literacy and numeracy was cancelled.
She said: “New assessments – which we support at P4, P7 and S3 – are not comparable, they cannot show a trend, there is no baseline and they will take time to bed in and in the meantime we have no idea whether standards in literacy and numeracy are rising or falling.
“The [education] committee was quite explicit – there is a five-year gap in our knowledge because of the actions of this SNP government.”
Picking up on Davidson’s point about primary assessments, Sturgeon replied: “She said very carefully that the Tories support them at P4 and P7. Of course, omitting to say that in their manifesto for the 2016 election, they supported them at P1 as well.
“Just another example of Ruth Davidson’s legendary flip-flopping on every conceivable issue.”
She stated that the Tories have “no policies”, adding that there is “not an iota of principle either under Ruth Davidson”.
Referring to criticism on education standards, the First Minister insisted that there has never been more data on how schools were doing – pointing out the previous survey only measured performance at a national level, while the new assessments will look at the individual councils and schools.
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