NICOLA Sturgeon hit back at Ruth Davidson over primary one tests during First Minister’s Questions yesterday, saying that the Scottish Tory leader has “zero credibility” on education.

The SNP leader came under fire after her government lost a vote on the controversial assessments. In a heated exchange, Davidson demanded a “complete overhaul” of the Curriculum for Excellence system used in all of Scotland’s schools. The Scottish Conservative leader also claimed that a decrease in subject choice for pupils in the later years of secondary school meant pupils had lost 622,000 qualifications over the last five years.

Sturgeon fired back, dismissing Davidson’s assertion and pointing out that her party had flip-flopped on the issue – the Conservatives voted to halt national assessments in P1, a policy the party had previously supported. “I don’t think the Tories have got a shred of credibility on education left after the U-turn they did yesterday, voting to scrap P1 assessments that they have spent the last four years demanding that this Scottish Government introduce,” said Sturgeon. “Zero credibility for Ruth Davidson.”

The SNP leader continued her attack, branding the Conservative leader a “shameless opportunist”.

She said: “Ruth Davidson week after week almost stands up here demanding more information on the performance of pupils in schools and yet she and her party yesterday performed a breathtaking U-turn and voted against assessments in P1 that she called for, demanded, in her manifesto and has demanded at regular intervals since then.”

With Holyrood having voted by 63 to 61 against using national assessments in P1 on Wednesday, Davidson used the opportunity to say more action was needed to tackle the problems in Scotland’s schools. She told Sturgeon that more than half of all schools restricted the number of subjects pupils could study in S4.

She added: “The crash in subject choice we are seeing is a symptom of a wider malaise and it is caused by the chaotic introduction of Curriculum for Excellence.”

But Sturgeon retaliated: “Here’s some figures for Ruth Davidson to chew over, the proportion of pupils getting passes at Higher level has risen more than 10 percentage points, it was 50.4% in 2009-10 in 2016-17 it was 61.2%.

“When we look at National 5 level, the proportion leaving school with an award has risen nine percentage points, it was 77.1% in 2009-10, it was 86.1% in 2016-17 and at Higher level the gap between the richest and the poorest has fallen by almost seven percentage points.”

She also noted the university admission body Ucas has just published figures showing “another new record for the number of young people getting a university place”.

She said: “I think it is about time Ruth Davidson stopped talking our schools down and started celebrating the achievements of pupils right across this country.”

Labour leader Richard Leonard also used FMQs at Holyrood to call on the Scottish Government to respect the result of the vote on P1 assessments. Education Secretary John Swinney has already pledged to “consider” this.