This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

An unfortunate reality of my job, and indeed the job of many journalists, is that a large proportion of my time is spent reading, hearing, and learning about what happens when things go wrong.

Over the past two and a half years I’ve spent a lot of time investigating shortcomings, misunderstandings, and outright failures related to Scottish education.

I’ve gathered new data using Freedom of Information requests, gone digging into official statistical publications, and helped readers figure out what’s going on between the lines of press releases from sources like the Scottish Government and SQA.

I’ve spoken to people from all across the country and listened as they told me about councils ignoring them or the ways in which local and national policymakers are letting their children down.

On a few occasions, I’ve heard heartbreaking stories about the way in which people have been treated by an education system that does more harm to more people than we want to admit.

And that’s all important, of course. Education failures aren’t just a short-term inconvenience – they affect people, sometimes for the rest of their lives. With the stakes so high, it’s absolutely right to shine as bright a light as........

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