Nicola Sturgeon mocked after claiming Scotland’s education system was flourishing once bad results were stripped out

NICOLA Sturgeon was mocked yesterday after she insisted Scotland’s education system was flourishing – once grim literacy and numeracy falls are stripped out.

Scotland’s First Minister was forced to defend dismal figures showing the country’s once proud education record which has slumped under SNP rule.

It follows the release of the latest official Scottish figures showing fewer than half of Scotland’s 13 and 14-year-olds are able to write well.

Ms Sturgeon said she had been “very open that that’s not good enough” but insisted a massive programme of reform was under way.

But she bizarrely claimed Scottish schools had been praised for making pupils “good citizens”.

She told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “We have had some advice that we need to have more of a focus within that curriculum on literacy and numeracy and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.

Scottish Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said her responses was a “tacit admission of failure”.

She said: “The recent SSLN statistics made it clear that the SNP government is not doing enough to address the problems in basic literacy.”

But she was blasted for refusing to say whether an independent Scotland would go back into the EU.

She told the BBC’s Marr show Scotland may need a “phased” approach to rejoining the Bloc and may have to join the European Free Trade Association (Efta) first.

Last night the Scottish Tories said her position on Europe had “descended into chaos”.