By John Lamont MP
Congratulations to every pupil across the Scottish Borders who has recently received their school exam results.
Every young person who has received good National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher grades should be incredibly proud of their hard work, determination and commitment.
Good luck to everyone who will now move on to a job or a college, university, training or apprenticeship place.
However, if the results were not as you expected or hoped for, do not despair because there is no one path to success. There are many different routes to achieving your ambitions and there will always be another exciting opportunity to take advantage of in the future.
Locally, there were positive signs in the exam results, with 96 per cent of S4 pupils achieving a National 5 award in English and 86 per cent achieving a National 5 award in Maths.
However, while we should celebrate successes, it is impossible to ignore the wider challenges facing Scottish education.
Too many schools are struggling because of a lack of investment and a lack of vision from the SNP government.
The curriculum is no longer as strong or ambitious as it once was, now that it no longer places the same value on the acquisition of knowledge.
Incidents of violence in our schools are causing growing concern and the SNP has provided no solutions to fix that issue.
Promises to increase teacher numbers by several thousand were broken.
Additionally, the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils remains stubbornly wide.
These problems require leadership, vision and investment from the SNP government to fix. However, they seem out of ideas and unable to make the difficult decisions that are necessary.
My party has set out positive plans to restore Scotland's reputation for educational excellence. We have proposed a new Curriculum for Aspiration that places a renewed focus on obtaining knowledge, especially in core subjects. We would improve literacy by expanding the use of phonics in primary schools. We believe in cutting bureaucracy and paperwork so that teachers have greater freedom to do what they do best. We would also tackle the pervasive issue of violence in schools by giving headteachers the power to restore discipline through the use of exclusions where necessary.
The achievements of young people across the Borders should be celebrated, but they could be achieving even more if the SNP gave our schools the investment they need.
