Jenny Gilruth is a bit peeved that MSPs are not more willing to celebrate the successes in Scottish education. Perhaps it’s because she used to be a teacher, so it’s all a bit close to the bone, or perhaps it’s because she’s now education secretary, with responsibility to actually do something about the mess education is in.

She finds it “disappointing” that Labour could not bring itself to acknowledge anything positive. The SNP may not have closed the attainment gap, but on the bright side her teaching qualification at least makes it look like the government has put someone in charge who might know something about the brief. A win for Gilruth, at the very least.

“I do not shy away from the areas where we face challenges,” she says, before carefully steering the conversation away from any of the areas where there are challenges.

Gilruth is just a sunny and optimistic person. So instead of looking at internationally recognised Pisa figures which found standards in Scotland’s schools had slipped, she advises everyone to instead look at a “broad range” of data. Including one particular dataset compiled by the, err, Scottish Government that proves the kids aren’t nearly as screwed as they seem.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Politics Matters