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Agenda item 2 is evidence from Professor Gordon Stobart, emeritus professor of education at University College London, on his report providing a comparative perspective of upper secondary education and student assessment in Scotland. Professor Stobart has worked as a secondary school teacher, as an educational psychologist, as a senior researcher in policy-related environments and as an academic. His expertise is in assessment, with much of his recent work focusing on assessment for learning.

Professor Stobart’s report was published as part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s series of working papers, in which the OECD publishes papers that describe the preliminary results of work in progress in order to stimulate discussion of issues on which the OECD works. I stress that the report represents the views of Professor Stobart rather than those of the OECD.

We are delighted to have you with us, Professor Stobart. You are very welcome. Before we open up our session to questions, I invite you to make an opening statement.

A couple of colleagues said that they might want to ask additional questions, so I will turn to them. James, do you want to come back in or are you content?

That is evidence of what knowledge can empower you to contribute to a committee meeting—well done, Fergus. You did that from memory, which is probably an object study in itself.

We turn now to Ross Greer for a new line of questioning.

Both of you have highlighted the importance of measuring outcomes, and Stephen Boyle has mentioned milestones. I wonder whether I can get your input on one real-time example that I would like to share with you. What will you be looking at with regard to the large increase in the number of teachers in Scotland? I refer the report that you published in March, which said that 1,423 new teachers and 247 new support staff had been recruited for Covid mitigation. What assessment have you made or do you plan to make of those roles, their permanence and so on? With the recruitment of all those teachers, what are the milestones or measurements that we should be looking at with regard to outcomes?

Please be very brief.

I think that “could do better” is the nature of your recommendation.

I will bring in Fergus Ewing, because his area of concern directly relates to all that.

We have a brief supplementary question from Willie Rennie, and then we will go straight to Michael Marra.

My final question is for the Auditor General for Scotland. We are at the start of our journey of scrutinising work in session 6 and would welcome your advice. What issue or consideration could the committee most usefully pursue or keep in our thoughts as we continue our scrutiny?

That was more a point than a question. We will move straight to Willie Rennie, who will ask questions on another area.