Scottish Labour has unveiled a plan for greater transparency of data around education to stop the SNP marking their own homework.

The party said greater transparency in education data was an ‘essential first step’ in making Scotland’s education system world class again.

Labour’s plan includes:

· Reintroduce the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN)

· Measure the experience of school, not just exam results

· A new longitudinal study tracking the experience of kids through school and into the workplace over years

· Standardise definitions and reporting across Scotland

· A culture of transparent data, with a new Scottish Education Data dashboard

It comes as one of the few truly independent measurements of Scottish education data – the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – saw Scotland attain its poorest set of results since it joined the study in 2000

Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra said: “Scotland’s education system used to be the best in the world and our ambition should be for it to be the best again.

“But to get there, we need to know where we are, and that means a radical overhaul in data transparency in the education system, and an end to politicians marking their own homework on these things. This would be an essential first step in delivering a better education system for Scotland

“The reason why PISA is such a gut punch for Scottish education is because it is one of the few genuinely impartial and external measurements we are part of.

“That we have rejoined other international studies is a welcome step forward, however rather than just fixing previous mistakes we need an honest assessment of what is and what isn’t working in our system – and only regular, transparent and independent data will help us do that.

“We can’t allow a culture where ministers mark their own homework to continue, it’s letting down teachers, parents and most importantly of all, pupils.”