In 2015, less than a year into her tenure as first minister, Nicola Sturgeon urged voters to judge her on her government’s education record.

Specifically, Sturgeon pledged to tackle Scotland’s attainment gap, the yawning divide between those from the most deprived areas and their more affluent peers.

The First Minister deserves credit for staking her reputation on an issue which had proved so intractable in the past, a problem so deep-seated that a succession of well-intentioned policy initiatives made little impact.

Yet if we are to judge the Scottish Government’s education record solely on reducing the attainment gap, then it barely scrapes a pass.