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

"The Scottish education system is not failing. It never has been and it isn't right now. It has its challenges, and I did a lot to overcome those challenges.”

Those were some of the words spoken by Nicola Sturgeon during a recent appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, with the comments coming in response to a question from a teacher who suggested that she should “atone” for her record on education.

There was, of course, a time when Nicola Sturgeon was very keen for us to judge her on her record, but it all feels like a long time ago now.

Back in 2015, the then First Minister went to one of Scotland’s most deprived communities and delivered a now infamous speech. Her government would, she declared, eliminate the ‘attainment gap’ between the richest and poorest pupils – but it was immediately clear she didn’t understand the problem she was dealing with, and that problem just got worse as time went on and politics came increasingly into play.

There were promises to reimpose standardised testing, with scores to be made public on a school-by-school basis. The implication was that children were being held back not by poverty, but by the failures of the people running schools and teaching classes.

But it was all going to be ok, because now a career politician had come along and thought up this amazing new idea of reducing inequality through the school system.

The usual bores (who, like Nicola Sturgeon, know precisely nothing meaningful about how education........

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