UK Parliament / Open data

Education and Local Government

I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman has mentioned the PISA studies, because that gives me an opportunity to talk about them . Let us talk about PISA. What exactly is it? It is an extremely crude metric that looks at very particular things. What it does not look at are communication skills. It does not look at problem-solving skills, and it does not look at employability skills. Those are the very skills that employers have been asking for, which is why we transformed our curriculum in Scotland. Countries that do well in PISA, such as China and South Korea, also have extremely high levels of student suicide. I do not want that for my young people in Scotland, and not one of us should. China also selects the pupils whom it puts forward for PISA. So there are many things that are wrong with it.

These are the questions on which we should be judging our young people. Are they in employment? Yes. Are they having a positive experience? Yes. Are they developing the skills that employers and businesses are asking for? Absolutely.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
669 cc921-2 
Session
2019-21
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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