WHEN I was a pupil at Hillpark Secondary School in the South Side of Glasgow, I witnessed first-hand the botched introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence – or CfE – and how it affected pupils and teachers in the school community.

Teachers often told us of their excessive workload and how the Curriculum for Excellence exacerbated this. Many of our favourite experienced teachers retired soon before we left and pointed to the CfE as the reason why.

Pupils, like myself, were treated like guinea pigs and told this upfront. We were expected to deal with the problems and issues of a system that had not truly been tested or prepared for. This was sharply put into focus when the Higher maths paper in 2015 had a pass rate of 34%.

The CfE was a product of cross-party agreement (something very rare these days) as all parties agreed that further improvements needed to be made to continue Scotland’s excellent high standards in education. This consensus quickly faded however as the SNP pursued their dream of Scottish separation from the Union at the expense of our schools.

In 2016, John Swinney, a well-known policy firefighter for the Nats, was drafted in to put out the self-inflicted blaze his government had created. Unfortunately, rather than improving standards, Mr Swinney has decided to bury his head in the sand as standards continue to slip.

My one piece of advice to the Education Secretary would be to escape the Holyrood bubble and visit some of the schools in my ward. There he will meet many teachers who are ready to throw in the towel and pupils who are suffering from the unnecessary stress that CfE has created.

Nowhere have the failures of the CfE and the Scottish Government been more apparent than in the PISA survey released last week. Scotland, a country once renowned for our educational standards, has slipped from 6th and 9th in reading and science to 15th and 29th respectively. These are record lows, with England and Wales showing dramatic increases, and so the buck stops with the SNP. They must be furious that the usual attack line of “Westminster’s Fault” won’t wash with the Scottish public.

Nicola Sturgeon once said that we should judge her on her record on education. With more than 48% in a recent poll stating they are unhappy with her record on this issue perhaps she will see sense. I, for one, am not holding my breath. If I was marking the Scottish Government’s homework, I’d be giving them an F, even considering the pass mark being reduced.