Nicola Sturgeon claims baby box will help reduce child poverty attainment gap 'in time'
Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the introduction of the baby box in Scotland will help reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.
The former first minister today admitted it was her "biggest regrets" that secondary school pupils from the poorest backgrounds continue to perform more poorly in exams than those from the richest.
Sturgeon used a keynote speech in 2015 to promise her government would "close the attainment gap completely" over the next decade - a policy ministers formally adopted a year later when John Swinney was serving as education secretary.
But exam results published this month show the SNP Government is now on course to miss that key target next year, after it became a policy commitment signed off in 2016.
Higher and National 5 results out show the richest 20 per cent of pupils continue to significantly outperform the 20 per cent of kids from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
Sturgeon was pressed on the issue when appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today to promote her new memoir, Frankly.
Asked by host Kirsty Wark why the attainment gap was still there, Sturgeon said: "This is possibly one of my biggest regrets, and it comes from not delivering it, but also the time I made the promise. I was probably not appreciating, as I quickly came to do, the factors that would influence that.
"That was not just about issues around the curriculum in schools, but what is the driving cause of the poverty related attainment gap? It's poverty, it's the conditions children grow up in outside of school.
"Some of the things that I am proudest of, are the Scottish Child Payment, the doubling of early years education, the baby box - these are things that are lifting children out of poverty and I believe, in time, will make a difference to the attainment gap."
In the 2016 Programme for Government, Sturgeon claimed her government would push to substantially reduce the attainment gap by 2026, saying it was "a yardstick by which the people of Scotland can measure our success".
The latest figures show some progress on the previous year in terms of overall attainment and a slight narrowing of the attainment gap. But by most measures the attainment gap is largely unchanged compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the attainment gap in the Higher pass rate has widened since 2019.
Speaking at the book festival event today, Sturgeon added: "I think Scottish education is good, I don't believe it's in the terrible state that many say. The attainment gap is starting to close.
"I won't sitting here and say, I don't regret it didn't go further. You'll have to judge me when you read the book, but I won't shy away things that went wrong, I try to explain what wrong, why did I get that wrong.
"On this particular issue, unless you change the conditions kids are growing up in, you're not going to have the impact - and that's what I learned along the way."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
3 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Scots MP blasts Nicola Sturgeon for refusing to say she was wrong on gender reform in book
Joani Reid said the former first minister's "deranged gender reform bill... would have endangered thousands of women." A Scottish Labour MP has blasted Nicola Sturgeon for failing to "admit she was wrong" about gender reform in her book. Joani Reid said the former first minister's "deranged gender reform bill... would have endangered thousands of women." She also blasted Sturgeon's memoir - which was released last week - as "self-serving" with "all the same narcissistic traits, arrogance and moral superiority we saw from her in government." East Kilbride and Strathaven MP Reid told the Record: "It's hard to think of a fall from grace so spectacular - Nicola Sturgeon was once hailed across the UK, including by people who should have known better, as some sort of progressive beacon. It all went to her head and she got drunk on her own hype. "Her deranged 'gender reform' bill would have allowed creepy men pretending to be women access to our toilets and female-only spaces. She ignored legal and expert warnings and anyone raising common sense safety issues was branded as bigots. "It was a crazy plan that would have endangered thousands of women. Fortunately, it was outside the powers of the Scottish Government, but they spent a fortune getting humiliated in the Supreme Court and yet she still can't admit she was wrong. "This self-serving, self-regarding memoir is full of petty score-settling and reveals all the same narcissistic traits, arrogance and moral superiority we saw from her in government. "Scotland needed a leader who would protect our rights, not sacrifice them on the altar of political vanity. Beyond the gimmicks and woke virtue signalling, she achieved little of substance during her eight years at the helm, and it all caught up with her in the end." Sturgeon's memoir, Frankly, was officially released on Thursday. Copies of it were on sale in Waterstones shops earlier in the week. In it, she accused JK Rowling of helping create a a "toxic" climate around Scotland's gender reform debate. The MSP said the Harry Potter author's decision to wear a T-shirt branding her a 'destroyer of women's rights' marked the point at which "rational debate" on the issue became "impossible" and "any hope of finding common ground disappeared". Sturgeon's Government passed a bill which would have made it possible for trans people to change gender without a medical diagnosis. But the bill was stopped from becoming law by Tory Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, who said it breached UK Equalities law. At the same time, there was public outrage after convicted double rapist Isla Bryson - who identified as female - was initially sent to a women's prison. Sturgeon then refused to say if Bryson was a man or woman, but said last week that male rapists should "probably" lose the right to choose their gender. Earlier this year there was a landmark ruling where the Supreme Court said that the words 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. The SNP was approached for comment.
Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Mayor Khan says Sturgeon ‘knew her stuff' but says SNP have ‘hoarded power'
The Mayor said his dealings with Ms Sturgeon – who was first minister in Scotland for over eight years – were 'very cordial'. But with the SNP having been in government in Edinburgh since 2007, he accused them of having 'hoarded power', saying this had left many Scots feeling 'disillusioned with the Scottish Parliament'. Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sir Sadiq said that both 'Cardiff and Edinburgh are as centralised as Whitehall'. He added: 'We've had the SNP in power for a long time in Scotland, and I think they have hoarded power.' But he said he was 'looking forward' to a change at next May's Holyrood elections, when he said the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar would be 'elected as the first minister'. However, the Labour Mayor stressed his dealings with Ms Sturgeon during the Covid pandemic had been 'really good', adding 'she was a grown up'. Sir Sadiq continued: 'Nicola Sturgeon was on top of her brief, she knew her stuff, as did Mark Drakeford. 'She was always courteous to me, we would speak offline about some of the challenges with the government, whether it was Theresa May or Boris Johnson, and my dealings with her were very cordial.'
Leader Live
3 hours ago
- Leader Live
Mayor Khan says Sturgeon ‘knew her stuff' but says SNP have ‘hoarded power'
The Mayor said his dealings with Ms Sturgeon – who was first minister in Scotland for over eight years – were 'very cordial'. But with the SNP having been in government in Edinburgh since 2007, he accused them of having 'hoarded power', saying this had left many Scots feeling 'disillusioned with the Scottish Parliament'. Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sir Sadiq said that both 'Cardiff and Edinburgh are as centralised as Whitehall'. He added: 'We've had the SNP in power for a long time in Scotland, and I think they have hoarded power.' But he said he was 'looking forward' to a change at next May's Holyrood elections, when he said the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar would be 'elected as the first minister'. However, the Labour Mayor stressed his dealings with Ms Sturgeon during the Covid pandemic had been 'really good', adding 'she was a grown up'. Sir Sadiq continued: 'Nicola Sturgeon was on top of her brief, she knew her stuff, as did Mark Drakeford. 'She was always courteous to me, we would speak offline about some of the challenges with the government, whether it was Theresa May or Boris Johnson, and my dealings with her were very cordial.'
