​Like Scottish numeracy levels, Labour’s sums don’t add up - John McLellan

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been rocked by the ending of a deal with its principal sponsor Baillie Gifford

The 2024 “What Kids Are Reading” report, which surveyed over 37,000 pupils in Scotland, uncovered a 4.4 per cent year-on-year fall in the number of books children read, the first since research began in 2008, apart from the first pandemic year.

And at the end of last year, the Scottish Government’s Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels data revealed that even by their own teachers’ subjective assessments, more than a quarter of pupils at state primaries were not achieving expected literacy levels.

Both echo the international Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which has plotted a steady decline in reading standards among Scottish 15-year-olds since the turn of the century.

It’s an appropriate week for the latest study because of the collective madness now gripping the world of book festivals, with one festival after another caving in to the intimidation by a bunch of environmental zealots to sever ties with their main sponsor, the Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford.

First it was the Hay Festival, then the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August and now the Borders Book Festival and Cheltenham have also followed their cowardly lead, and all because BG has holdings in companies which have an involvement in fossil fuels or, horror of horrors, tech companies with interests in Israel.

Until this week, the Edinburgh International Book Festival was happy to extol the virtues of its deal with BG because it supported its Children’s and Schools programme, provided free access to events and gave a free book for every pupil attending, and subsidised travel for schools so none were disadvantaged.

It’s exactly the kind of arrangement which is needed to address declining literacy at a time when the Scottish Government has done next to nothing about it and now has no money to invest in such badly needed initiatives.

Despite emollient words, the book festivals are slapping companies like BG in the face when the evidence clearly suggests schools badly need the back-up of such corporate philanthropy if the national workforce is to remain competitive in a world which demands high levels of technical and communication skills.

It should also be a concern that only two Scottish universities make the top 100 in this week’s new QS World Universities Guide which measures employability, compared to 12 in England. At 27th, Edinburgh has slumped from 15th two years ago. Glasgow is 78th.

Scottish education doesn’t have its problems to seek, but they will deepen with the imposition of VAT on private schools by an incoming Labour government. It ignores Edinburgh’s special circumstances and a recent study by Biggar Economics indicates that well over 1000 children will leave the independent sector in Edinburgh alone, all seeking places at state schools which don’t currently exist.

Despite Labour claims to the contrary, the VAT receipts will be swallowed by the increased cost to the government, nearly £8000 for each secondary pupil, so there will be nothing left for promised reinvestment in education.

If private school rolls fall by more than 13 per cent it will cost the government money and in Edinburgh cause untold problems in already over-capacity state schools.

Like Scottish numeracy levels, the politics of the left don’t add up.