Yes, thank you, convener. I welcome the opportunity to attend the committee and discuss issues that are relevant to my portfolio, and I look forward to doing that over the course of this parliamentary session.
As the First Minister has made clear, education is the defining mission of the Government. There can be no greater responsibility than working to improve the life chances of our children. The Government’s commitment to education underpins our three top priorities of delivering sustainable economic growth, reforming the public sector and addressing the inequality that exists in our society. The primary challenge that we are faced with in our education system is the attainment gap—the gap between the attainment of young people from the most and least disadvantaged areas. I am determined to ensure that every child in Scotland has the same opportunity to succeed.
My priorities will range across three particular areas. First, I want to ensure that our children and young people get the best start in life. I will focus on transforming early learning and childcare with a doubling of provision, the deployment of flexibility to help parents—particularly mothers—to return to work and an insistence on educational input to close the attainment gap before it begins to have a profound impact. Secondly, we will empower teachers, parents and communities; reduce workload; ensure that funding reaches schools to meet the needs of local areas; and focus on what works in the process of strengthening our school system. We will be relentless in our efforts to close the attainment gap and raise standards for all. That underpins the pursuit of equity and excellence for all in our society. Thirdly, by widening opportunities to access higher, further and vocational education, the Government will work to ensure that every child has the same chance to progress through breaking down the barriers that prevent young people from deprived backgrounds from progressing to the levels that their more affluent peers reach.
Yesterday, I announced to Parliament the delivery plan, which sets out a range of tangible steps to make significant progress in closing the attainment gap, in tackling the issue of workload in the education system and in undertaking the reform measures that the Government has set out. There is already a range of strong performance in our education system. We have seen that assessed and validated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its report on Scottish education. We also see, from the statistical analysis, improvements in the attainment and performance of young people. The most recent statistics relating to the detail of positive destinations indicated that more than six in 10 young people had achieved a qualification at higher level or above, reflecting the hard work, commitment and dedication of young people and of the teachers and others who supported them through school.
Those are the priorities that the Government will focus on, and we will ensure that they are addressed as part of our work on education.