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Scottish Labour leader LightningMinion wrote an article about Scottish Labour’s education policies:

“Scotland’s education system has an equality problem. Education is an important part of social mobility as a good education gives students from disadvantaged backgrounds the pathway to a well-paid career, yet many students from disadvantaged backgrounds are priced out of a good education. This is why there is an attainment gap in Scotland of wealthier students performing better in exams than their disadvantaged peers. Tackling this issue will be the first priority of a Scottish Labour Education Secretary.

The current exams system is causing students to be unreasonably stressed over how well they performed in the exam, and is a cause of the attainment gap entrenching equalities in society. Following a passionate campaign by me and the Labour Party, the UK government is currently conducting a review of the examination system in England and, once the review has been published, a Scottish Labour government will consider its results as we consider how to reform examinations in Scotland to remove stress from the system, to make the system more inclusive, and to ensure that exams are as accurate at assessing the potentials of students as possible.

There exists a 2-tier system of education in Scotland, consisting of state schools funded by local authorities and private, fee-paying schools funded by super wealthy families. The proponents of private education often argue that one benefit of private schools is that families can pay for their child to have a better education by sending them to a fee-paying school. This conversely means that those students whose families are on low-incomes and thus cannot afford private schools should receive a worse standard of education, which is manifestly unfair. This argument also suggests that state schools are worse than private schools, which I know to be an inaccurate and snobbish argument insulting towards the many hard-working teachers across Scotland’s state schools.

Instead of this 2-tier system of education, Scottish Labour believes that there should only be one tier of quality education in state schools, which is why we have committed to ending private education. Scottish Labour will, just like Labour has in England, ban the opening of new fee-paying schools, and will integrate existing fee-paying schools into the state system.

Fees for education have already been abolished in the higher education sector following a successful campaign by Scottish Labour against tuition fees, but university students still have to cope with high living costs which are pricing students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds out of higher education. Maintenance loans often are not enough to cover bills students face and they saddle students with debt, and not all students are eligible for basic income payments. This is why Scottish Labour will introduce a Minimum Student Income scheme based on students’ living costs and the rate of the living wage so that all students are able to afford to pay their bills as they complete their degree.

It is not just students who are suffering from the high cost of living at universities. Many staff in the higher education sector are stuck on short-term or zero hours, insecure contracts with low wages and high workloads expecting staff to work overtime routinely. Scottish Labour has committed to ending the casualisation in the universities sector by ending short-term and zero-hours contracts, instead seeking a new fair deal for university staff which guarantees job security, a fair wage, and stops the expectation of staff to routinely work overtime and to be available for work 24/7.

The Scottish education system is full of inequalities holding back students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is beyond time to break down these inequalities to allow students to break the class ceiling. Scottish Labour has a plan to end the inequalities in our education system - all we require is a vote on Friday the 4th.