What the international data shows

Dr Bloomer points to PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment, which compares 15-year-olds across developed countries in reading, maths and science.

He says Scotland’s performance has declined sharply in maths and science, and less dramatically in reading.

“We know that it is real,” he says, “because the PISA methodology is applied in the same way right across the globe.”

In other words, Scotland is being measured in the same way as comparable countries and, compared like-for-like, performance is no longer as strong as it once was.

Curriculum for Excellence and where things changed

Dr Bloomer helped develop Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, introduced nationally in 2010. The curriculum aimed to raise attainment and develop skills for life, learning and work.

He insists the original vision itself was not the problem.

The Curriculum for Excellence was, he says, “really not very much more than a mission statement” built around four broad goals: successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

The real problem, he argues, emerged during implementation.

“The crucial error… was made in the implementation program… in the specification of the curriculum.”

From 2010 onwards, the curriculum was broken down into more than a thousand “unnecessarily vague” learning statements known as “experiences and outcomes”.

These statements were intended to guide teaching across broad phases of learning in primary and early secondary school. Teachers were expected to use them to assess progress, shape lessons and report to parents.

Each statement was written in the voice of a child, beginning with phrases such as “I can…” or “I have learned…”

“Committees of adults made the statements up,” he says, “but they put the words into the mouth of an imaginary child.”

Why knowledge matters

Dr Bloomer believes the biggest issue was that the curriculum guidance became too broad and unclear about the specific knowledge children should master.

“The knowledge that was to be conveyed was never clear,” he says.

Children were assessed largely through teacher judgement against Curriculum for Excellence “levels” such as Early, First or Second Level.

“The Curriculum for Excellence level… is a consequence of a teacher's personal evaluation.”

Although standardised testing existed, he says results were used mainly to inform teacher judgement and were not routinely shared directly with pupils or parents.

“Nobody gets told what the outcome of those tests are, except for the teacher.”

For Dr Bloomer, the wider consequence has been a weakening of knowledge at the centre of education.

“The consequence of that has been a decline in emphasis on knowledge, and that in itself has been a catastrophic development for Scottish education.”

He argues that skills can only develop properly when children first build strong foundations in knowledge, vocabulary and understanding.

Attendance concerns after the pandemic

Alongside falling standards, Dr Bloomer highlights school attendance as another major concern.

Persistent pupil absence in Scotland is currently running at around 28.5%, meaning more than one in four pupils miss at least 10% of school sessions.

“That’s 1 in 4 pupils missing at least 10% of school sessions,” he says.

He believes lockdowns during the Covid pandemic played a role, but argues Scotland failed to create a serious national recovery response afterwards.

“No kind of learning recovery program was put in place,” he says.

In his view, when education is not treated as urgent, attendance weakens and vulnerable children suffer most.

For foster carers and families supporting children with disrupted educational histories, gaps in attendance can quickly compound existing challenges around confidence, attainment and emotional wellbeing.

Rising complexity in schools

Another pressure facing schools, he says, is the sharp rise in the number of children identified as having additional support needs.

While greater awareness explains part of that increase, classrooms are also dealing with increasing complexity, including behavioural challenges, mental health pressures and widening gaps in attainment.

For carers, this can mean longer waits for support, stretched services and children struggling to cope in busy or overstretched classrooms.

When standards are unclear and attendance becomes fragile, those pressures intensify further.

Concerns about Scottish education data

Dr Bloomer is also critical of Scotland’s national education data.

“Scottish educational data is very poor,” he says.

He points to Scotland withdrawing from two major international comparisons earlier this century, alongside the closure of the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy around a decade ago.

Although Scotland is now rejoining international surveys, meaningful trend data may not emerge until the 2030s.

He openly questions why robust measurement was allowed to weaken.

“One would not like to be cynical,” he says, “but hiding the evidence does spring to mind.”

He believes clearer national data is essential if standards are to improve.

Why this matters for vulnerable children

Dr Bloomer argues this should not be viewed simply as a political debate.

For him, the issue is about clarity, expectations, stability and ensuring children receive strong educational foundations.

He believes that when curriculum guidance is vague, knowledge is diluted, attendance weakens and support systems become overstretched, it is often the children who have already experienced disruption who feel the impact first.

His message throughout the conversation is direct: standards have declined, knowledge needs to return to the centre of education and Scotland needs clearer ways of measuring how children are really doing.