Smith: Literacy Action Plan will succeed if it focuses on the right areas

The Scottish Government has today published a Literacy Action Plan.

Liz Smith MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning, said:

"I welcome this publication and hope it focuses on the right areas. Statistics clearly show that the decline in literacy standards takes place between P3 and S2.

"The problem starts in primary school and that is why we need more rigorous literacy and numeracy testing, set against nationally agreed criteria, for all pupils by the time they reach the end of Primary 7.

"Clackmannanshire and West Dunbartonshire have proved what can be done to raise standards by returning to traditional methods of teaching and testing the 3Rs in primary schools and that is what we need across Scotland.

"Employers are right when they say there is no clarity over how literacy and numeracy are assessed. We need that clarity now and we need it in primary school, rather than a mixed bag of measures

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