Michael Marra vows to put education at the heart of Scottish politics

The new party leader says Holyrood must break its “consensus of silence” on education, as it has ignored the growing crises of violence, attendance and attainment in schools, funding for colleges and universities, and a skills shortage for employers.

On Monday Mr Marra will visit Dundee and Angus College, where he will pledge to work across party lines to fix the problems, and urge the other political parties to engage in honest debate about what is and is not working.

He said: “The most important investment any government can make is in its people, starting with giving our young people the opportunity to have a fair go in life.

“Half the Scottish cabinet, including the First Minister himself, have served as education secretary.

Get our revamped Steamie newsletter

“We have a former teacher as deputy first minister, yet around Holyrood there has been a conspiracy of silence on education.”

Earlier this month the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) revealed Scotland and Wales had fallen behind England in reading, maths and science tests.

The international study records the knowledge and skills of more than 760,000 15-year-olds from 91 different countries, and was Scotland’s “poorest” results.

Mr Marra said: “The Pisa results should sting the pride of any patriotic Scottish politician, and it should spur us into action.

“In Germany, the first Pisa scores led to an emergency response from the government and a series of national reforms. In Scotland years of decline have led to barely a shrug of the shoulders.

“On attendance, violence, and attainment our schools need politicians to rise to the challenge.

“Our colleges and universities face huge funding gaps and our employers report skills gaps while too many Scots are left unable to access good work.

“I’ll work in good faith across party lines in Holyrood to make Scottish education the best in the world again - I hope other parties are up to the challenge.”

Yesterday, Mr Marra said Scottish Labour is trying to appeal to a Scotland that no longer exists, and that he plans to change the direction of the party.

Speaking to BBC, he said: “I have a strong mandate with well over 60 per cent of the membership, so I think it’s a strong mandate to change the direction of the party.

“I’m looking forward to getting on with that job. It’s a big job to do though, to reconnect with the whole country.

“I’m not going to come in here and say that it’s one more push, that’s absolutely not the case.

“I fundamentally believe we have to reconnect with the country in a really profound way.

“The country we are still trying to appeal to doesn’t exist anymore. The last Labour governments in 1999 and 2003, those people live in different places, they do different jobs.

"Scotland's a different country.”

He also said he has to be “absolutely clear” on how “significant” the party’s loss at May’s election was. The party won 17 seats, which was its worst election result in the history of devolution.