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We are committed to ensuring that the burden placed on schools by central government is appropriate and proportionate. One way of achieving this is by rationalising Scotland's engagement with international surveys like PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. Whilst PIRLS is a well-regarded international assessment programme, it is the view of the Scottish Government that PISA provides a more useful international measure to sit alongside our other evidence about the Scottish education system. PISA is the only international survey that includes a consistent set of comparator nations, with all OECD countries involved, as well as a substantial number of other countries. It also goes beyond assessing how well pupils have mastered a curriculum to assessing pupils' knowledge and skills required for participation in society and everyday life.

We are committed to ensuring that the burden placed on schools by central government is appropriate and proportionate. One way of achieving this is by rationalising Scotland's engagement with international surveys like PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. Whilst TIMSS is a well-regarded international assessment programme, it is the view of the Scottish Government that PISA provides a more useful international measure to sit alongside our other evidence about the Scottish education system. PISA is the only international survey that includes a consistent set of comparator nations, with all OECD countries involved, as well as a substantial number of other countries. It also goes beyond assessing how well pupils have mastered a curriculum to assessing pupils' knowledge and skills required for participation in society and everyday life.

Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes in the sciences provide a framework to help young people develop a secure knowledge and understanding of the big ideas and concepts of the sciences. Despite restrictions imposed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, schools continue to meet these expectations in the sciences, and in other areas of the curriculum, at all ages and stages.

In line with the Education Scotland National e-learning offer, a range of high quality and practical STEM resources have been developed. These are designed to support education practitioners in order to improve the online learning of children and young people. The Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) primary partnership programme has, for example, been able to support more than 300 professional learning and confidence building events between August and December 2020.

In addition, the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) continued to run their Primary Cluster Programme and have reconfigured their support for primary teaching in digital formats through their Home Learning and SSERCTV provision.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35275 on‎ 3 March 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The Scottish Government believes that local authorities and schools are best placed to understand local need and develop bespoke education recovery offerings based on specific circumstances.

We continue to support and enable education recovery work at a local level. To allow young people additional learning opportunities we have worked with partners to develop the e-Sgoil Easter senior phase study support programme, which will be available to all local authority areas in April. This offering will include around 30 subjects beginning on 6 April 2021 and running over two weeks until 16 April. A total of 106 sessions in the first week and half of that in second week. This is additional online study support being made available free to all local schools to access and use for their senior phase pupils. Furthermore, we have committed over £375 million as part of a long-term approach towards education recovery. That funding has contributed to additional teachers, support staff, digital devices and connectivity solutions – all of which can support young people to continue to access quality learning and teaching.

PISA sits alongside national sources of data and evidence to allow a holistic view of the Scottish education system and the experiences of young people. The Scottish Government has not set a specific target for improving PISA scores, other than to seek to improve Scotland's performance in the assessment relative to previous assessments and compared to other participating countries.

The PISA 2018 results show that Scotland's score for reading had increased between 2015 and 2018, with a statistically significant improvement. This demonstrates that we are on the right track, making progress where it counts - in the classroom. Our performance in science and maths is in line with the OECD average but this needs to improve. To ensure improvement in STEM, we are taking concerted action through our STEM Education and Training Strategy.

It is a matter for each school and local authority in Scotland to plan a Senior Phase curriculum that takes account of local circumstances and meets the needs and aspirations of learners.

The Scottish Government commissioned the OECD to undertake an Independent Review of Scotland’s Curriculum, which would specifically look at depth and breadth of learning in the Senior Phase and local flexibility versus increased prescription – both the issues highlighted in this question. The OECD will be publishing their final report by the end of June 2021 and I will consider their final recommendations at that point.

A number of resources have been published and provided to people who are receiving their COVID-19 vaccination. Information on the vaccination can be found on ; this information is also available in British Sign Language (BSL), audio, other languages, Easy Read and large print formats.

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children are fed and ready to engage in learning. They are also a valued support for family budgets - by providing a saving of approximately £400 per year per child.

This government has shown its support to children and young people in receipt of free school meals through the additional £51 million of funding to local authorities to continue the provision of free school meals during the period of school closures and through the summer, winter and Easter holidays.

We do review the delivery of free school meals to ensure that it is supporting children and young people and expansion of free school meals to additional year groups is one of those considerations as part of this process. Implementation of a policy of this scale would require significant levels of planning, assessment and delivery in conjunction with COSLA and our partners in local authorities. In 2021-22, we will continue to provide £53 million of funding to local authorities for the universal provision of free school meals to every child in primary 1 to primary 3. We will also continue to provide funding to local authorities to deliver free school meals to all eligible children and young people in primary 4 and above.