The University of Edinburgh is home to many students from outside the UK. Photo: Flavio Vallenari/iStockphoto
Free university tuition will be enshrined in the Constitution of an independent Scotland, SNP ministers have said despite warnings that the policy is driving out home-grown students.
Humza Yousaf's government has published the latest in a series of documents on independence, this time on education, despite the fact that this is a political area, has already been transferred to Holyrood.
SNP ministers have overseen Scotland's decline in international school rankings in maths, reading and science over the past 17 years, with the latest assessments showing English pupils doing better.
But the report claims independence will allow ministers to «further improve» the education system and propose that free university tuition be included in the written constitution.
It said an independent Scotland within the EU would mean that students from the continent «would again have the same access to higher education, just like Scottish students.” EU students also received free tuition before Brexit.
The Scottish National Party's free tuition policy was only made available by limiting the number of «free» places for Scottish young people. There is no such restriction for children from the rest of the UK as they pay a fee.
Official figures show that between 2006 and 2021 there was a 56 per cent increase in applications from Scotland and an increase in the number of applications by 84 percent. number is prohibited from entering.
Extending this right to EU students would mean there would be even more competition for the fixed quota of 'free' places, risking even more Scots missing out.
Jenny Gilruth, the SNP education minister, said her party would be enshrining the right to education from the first day of independence. Photo: SST/Alamy Live News
Introducing the document, Jenny Gilruth, Education Secretary of the Scottish National Party, said: “As we have already said, we will enshrine economic, social and cultural rights — including the right to education — in an interim constitution, effective from the first day of independence.
“The Scottish Government would propose that our policy on free university tuition be enshrined in a permanent constitution for an independent Scotland, subject to consideration at a constitutional convention.”
Other unappreciated measures mentioned in the article included increasing the length and pay of maternity and paternity leave, and giving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all elections in Scotland.
But The 34-page document, written by government officials, did not include a single page on the “school years” and no proposals for major reform of the education system.
The latest global Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) gave Scottish secondary school students results at record lows and showed them falling further behind their English peers in reading, maths and science.
Craig Hoy, chairman of the Scottish Conservative party, said: “It is appalling that stranded Scots are still footing the bill for SNP propaganda documents that lack credibility and are never read.”
He added: «…The SNP should now be fixing the mess they've made of Scotland's education system rather than worrying about what it would be like in an independent Scotland.»
Classic SNP jam tomorrow
Pam Duncan -Glancy, Labor MP said: “Tomorrow it will be classic SNP jam. Education in Scotland is currently in crisis, with further and higher education facing serious funding problems and places available being dwindling.
“While the SNP dreams of what Scottish education could be, the fact remains that before their eyes teachers, staff, pupils and students are facing a nightmare created by the SNP.”
The document was published at the initiative of an economist who previously advised the Scottish Government, issued frank warnings about Scotland's separate economy.
'Mini-Argentina'
Professor Mark Blyth, William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics '57 at Brown University in the US, said » Nationalist Economics Festival in Dundee at the weekend: “You can’t really say Brexit is the worst thing ever and then have the biggest Brexit of all time. That's literally what it is.»
He said an independent Scotland, as a «small, open economy», would need to «balance imports and exports over the long term, otherwise everyone will think your currency is… -«.
Professor Blyth also warned that Scotland could become a “mini-Argentina”, adding: “Just because you can print money means nothing if you don’t have the means to back it up. »
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