The man who redesigned Scotland’s school system has called on Nicola Sturgeon to swallow her pride and rejoin international league tables.
Keir Bloomer, who is the architect of the Curriculum for Excellence, said it was a “serious error” to leave the education rankings.
He added Scotland’s performance in the one remaining table they still feature in is “close to alarming”.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier, he also dismissed the SNP’s limit on class size numbers as a gimmick and bemoaned a “grossly overregulated” education system that is turning teachers off the profession.
The Scottish Government opted out of the Trends in International Maths and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) league tables in 2010 with the aim of saving £800,000 and reducing the burden on schools.
“I think it was a serious error to withdraw from those two surveys and I hope we rejoin them as quickly as we can,” Mr Bloomer said.
“The Government was right to try and gather evidence on how well the system was doing by introducing standardised testing (for pupils), but if that is true then it needs to gather evidence internationally too.
“And the idea that you can withdraw from two of three I think is wholly misguided. I suspect that the First Minister knows that perfectly well and the only thing that holds them back is the fact they were wrong to withdraw in the first place.”
Mr Bloomer, who is on the board of the thinktank Reform Scotland and said the SNP had made some strides in closing the attainment gap, said the OECD table showed that Scotland has not been keeping up with other nations.
The former chief executive and former education director of Clackmannanshire Council labelled the SNP’s flagship policy on small class sizes a waste of both time and money.
“Lowering class sizes is the most expensive way of achieving nothing that is open for governments to try,” he said.
“There is no evidence that smaller class sizes produce better results and there is very extensive international research on this.
“The failure twice over (to reach class size targets set in 2007 and 2011) demonstrates the lack of understanding of how to bring about change in the system.”
Commenting on the recruitment crisis that is engulfing parts of the country, Mr Bloomer said reducing the bureaucratic burden for teachers is as key as pay incentives.
“To my mind education is now grossly overregulated.
“You would not go into it if you wanted to be creative because you don’t get the scope to be creative,” he said.
“There are some big problems and, although the Government has made an attempt to tackle them, there’s not much evidence of success.”
An SNP spokesman did not respond directly to a question on whether it would reverse the 2010 opt-outs.
But he said: “Scotland already participates in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, which focuses on maths, reading and science. This is the largest international survey and all OECD countries take part in it.
“The last OECD review undertaken while the SNP were in government found thatScotland scores aboveinternational averages inscience and reading and that there are clear upward trends in attainments and positivedestinations.”
Smarter? For the next part of our week-long study of the Scottish Government’s performance, see Thursday’s Courier.