Today BBC UK reported the above survey results:
The SLC previously said the average balance for loan holders in England when they start making repayments was less than £45,000. New government data, external shows that amount has now risen to £48,470.
In 2023, under the typically stupid headline – Scots education crisis, the Herald reported – Students from Scotland on average each owe £15,400 [less than a third of the level in England] when they started repaying in 2023.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
John, you have consistently given us info largely ignored by the media and you have a thoughtful readership. Can we come up with possible responses to the “Scottish education plummeting down the Pisa scales” attacks? Obviously the responses need to be brief, focus on key info and adaptable. It’s one of the major issues used to beat the SNP with but based on dodgy/incomplete stats and misinformation
I’m tempted by the recent headline saying Scotland has the best educated population as an opener but keen to hear what you and others come up with
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pISA scores are generated using a computer algorithm. The media and opposition politicians go overboard on these scores but rarely if ever mention the written reports accompanying them. These give a much more detailed description of performance which shows Scottish pupils holding their own in many areas that don’t lend themselves to written exams. One such report produced by the OECD in 2015 was ‘Improving Scottish Schools’. There have also been more recent ones.
If you want scores then here they are – NOTE the drop from 2000 to 2006 when LabLibDem in power. Since then the scores have more or less stabilised as the OECD acknowledged in the 2015 report
Year Maths Reading Science
2000 533 526 522
2003 524 516 514
2006 506 499 515
2009 499 500 514
2012 498 506 513
2015 491 493 497
2018 489 504 490
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A lot on Pisa here on the blog recently – https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=Pisa
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I’d read a piece on the main BBC site 10 hours ago along similar lines, and gasped at the >90 billion debt mountain plus interest, wondering how many new super dooper Calmac etc ferries that might buy even if the bald eagle of making money owned the shipyards.
I frankly doubt the bulk of it will ever be paid back as those with the biggest bills will have planned to bugger off overseas where they’re unreachable, salaries are based on qualification and merit, houses are affordable, politicians have a heathier respect for a highly qualified workforce even if they’re from abroad having arrived by Quantas or similar rather than in ‘small boats’ who must be instantly incarcerated.
The UK’s only government supported growth industries are based on debt – PFI etc., are as far removed from a government’s first ‘duty’ towards it’s people as it is possible to get. That’s why most of our brightest leave in increasing numbers…
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Kaye Adams, Tom Hunter et al would have you both for supper, it would be your first 5 words that would count unless you managed a good comeback. We here know the basics and sources to check, it’s a Flynn or Lynch response that we need. In fact we should probably practice responses for all the trigger points, role play interviews are not to be ruled out!
Having said that it is not of course the Kaye’s and the Tom’s we have to convince, they are only there to make anti SNP points and don’t listen. It’s the ordinary folk who maybe don’t much bother with politics whose ears might prick up when they hear something genuine, or the politicos from across the uk and beyond who are unaware of the depth of Scottish politics and are amazed to find out what is going on. For example, Mathew Wright (LBC) was interviewing Richard Thompson (MP not the singer!) about the gas/oil transition policy last Sunday. Richard was given time to explain this clearly and Mathew actually said “you make a great argument. I have to hold my hands up I did not know about the volume of renewable electricity you are creating in Scotland. That is quite laudable, I am very impressed”
I was so impressed and heartened by this that I listened to it again and made notes!!
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” I have to hold my hands up I did not know about the volume of renewable electricity you are creating in Scotland ” – When you have media info so carefully controlled such that independent journalists are surprised by such things, it speaks volumes for “news management” as it’s become in the present day, or propaganda in old speak.
I suggest scrutinising this from HMS James Cook more than 13 hours ago as example https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjeergjpjdwo – By the time the attempted deception is uncovered and apologised for at stupid am after the election the intended damage will have been done ( the Sarah Smith method ) – However, such are el Suito’s trust levels in Scotland that almost everybody knows it’s propaganda – In England he’s effectively the “foreign correspondent”, thereby must surely know what he’s talking about and be honest…
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Student debt in Scotland would be even lower if it was not for the cost of student residences. Private companies now build/provide student residences and their monthly rental charges are eye-watering.
As to the situation in England that is horrendous and threatening the very existence of some Universities. Most of that debt will never be repaid but it is now on the UK’s ‘books’ which it was not at first. There is an article in the Guardian about it – a long read but worth the time
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jul/02/how-the-tories-pushed-universities-to-the-brink-of-disaster
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The Student Loan book (England) is £87Billion. It gets sold on. The Tories cut Education £6Billion (£54Billion) a year and put the debt on the students. Half will never be paid back. A false economy.
The Scottish Gov has to mitigate the cuts.
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I stand to be corrected but it was my understanding that English student debt is classed as a UK debt with a proportion of it assigned to Scotland as part of GERS.
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