Education is, always has been, always will be, and certainly should be, political.

Decisions around how we teach our children, and what we teach them, are really about the kind of people we want them to become and, ultimately, the type of country we want to live in. They concern big questions about the knowledge and experiences that we value as a society, where power is located, and how it can be challenged in pursuit of change.

Debates about structures and resources, meanwhile, are really about whether or not we are willing to prioritise our children’s needs.

Of course these issues are political. How could they not be?

But the extent to which education is made ‘party political’ is another matter entirely. It is also a particularly acute problem in Scotland.

We’ve seen plenty of cynical politicking over schools in recent years, and an increase over the past decade, including Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘judge me on my record’ schtick (which by the end of this parliament will have cost us around £2bn), Jack McConnell’s interjections during the........

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