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Scotland’s Education Secretary has said she “does not intend to stand still” following the results of a key international league table this week.

The Pisa rankings, produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, found the performance of the country’s 15-year-olds in maths and reading declined between 2022 and 2025.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Show, Mairi McAllan said she wants to be a “reforming” Education Secretary, as she pursues changes to the curriculum.

“Pupils are very much at the forefront and in all of these reforms that I’m taking forward currently in that curriculum improvement cycle, the ending of mobile phones in our classroom which I’m taking forward on a nationwide basis and in the public service reform agenda generally of the First Minister, there’s so much scope for improvement there,” she said.

“What I want your listeners to hear is that I will be a reforming Education Secretary.

“I do not intend to stand still. I will pursue these reforms vigorously and I will have the very best outcomes for all our children in Scotland at the core of how I pursue that.”

Curriculum for Excellence the current teaching framework in Scotland will be reformed, Ms McAllan said, with knowledge being given a greater focus, while teachers are also being told to monitor more closely the “progression” of young people.

“I think the combination of those things can push us really far in that pursuit of academic excellence, which I am so dedicated to, but I won’t do it to the detriment or to the exclusion of support for creative expression, problem solving, moral education and that really strong wellbeing factor that came in our Pisa results,” she said.

The results earlier this week resulted in stark criticism of the Scottish Government, with former UK education secretary Lord Michael Gove offering to meet with Ms McAllan to discuss possible improvements.

The offer was quickly rejected, with the Education Secretary saying on Sunday: “With all respect to Mr Gove and what he undertook as education secretary in England, as one of the principal architects of austerity, welfare reform and Brexit which governments throughout the UK are still trying to help our communities and our economy recover from he’s not at the top of my list of those to meet and take advice from.”

Speaking on the same programme, Lord Gove said: “The offer remains open, because I think that when you are a minister you have to follow the evidence.

“All the evidence is that during the course of the last 15 years, Scotland has moved from having a superior education system, a superior school system to England, to one where it’s fallen dramatically behind.”