The number of primary school teachers has fallen under the SNP's tenure
As schools across Scotland return today from the summer break, first minister Nicola Sturgeon will deliver a speech in defence of the SNP’s record on education.
She will do so against an abysmal set of statistics showing the abject failure of her party to achieve its key goals.
In its manifesto for the 2007 election, which it won as a minority administration, the SNP pledged to ‘reduce class sizes in Primary 1, 2 and 3’ – the early stages of primary education in Scotland – ‘to eighteen pupils or less to give children more time with their teacher at this vital stage of their development’.
Laudable aims, yet the Scottish government’s own statistics show that whilst the percentage of pupils in class sizes of 18 or fewer increased from 15.3 per cent in 2007 to 21.6 per cent in 2010, it has since fallen dramatically.
The most recent data shows that as of 2014, just 12.9 per cent of children in Primary 1, 2 and 3 were in classes of 18 or fewer pupils.
Over the same period, the proportion of such pupils in class sizes of 19-25 increased from 53.6 per cent in 2010 to 60.4 per cent in 2014. The proportion in classes of more than 25 pupils increased over this period from 24.8 per cent to 26.7 per cent. This is despite 2010 legislation that made class sizes above 25 illegal.
Overall, the average primary school class size in Scotland stands at 23.3 pupils, higher than the 22.7 average size at the time of the last elections to Holyrood in 2011.
And what of teacher numbers? According to the official data, the total number of teachers based in early learning and childcare, primary, secondary and special schools, or visiting specialists, was 50,814 in 2014, a ten-year low.
During the course of the current SNP government’s tenure alone, which began in 2007, the number of such teachers has fallen by 4,285.
Little wonder that the SNP is under such pressure to explain how, as a party supposedly committed to education as a route to social mobility, it could be presiding over such a dreadful record.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor at Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
10 Responses to “The numbers that show the SNP’s failure on education”
noahpetshop
They just lie and lie and lie some more ! And their halfwit sheeple followers just lap it up 1
noahpetshop
Facts are chiels that dinnae lee !
fran whitmore
Myths about Class sizes Ed – it was the Scottish local authorities – the labour led ones, who set their faces against smaller class sizes. They fought against the policy tooth and nail and are still fighting against it but don’t let the facts get in the way of your anti-snp story. Never mind as everybody in Scotland now knows how useless and self-serving Scottish Labour are at every level and we vote accordingly.
Eric Christison
Yep, the SNP has failed in every sector of Scottish Education from Primary 1 to the final year of university.
From the Scotsman today “The statistics on literacy, numeracy, the Higher mathematics pass rate (34 per cent!) and now the fall in numbers studying maths and science are all evidence of this shocking record.
It is actually a pretty difficult trick to pull off, to have a uniformly negative impact on both primary and secondary education, and simultaneously reduce the numbers studying the most crucial subjects in the curriculum, but the SNP has managed it.”
But hey, in this Post Referendum Post Rational age we find ourselves in who cares? Us Scots will lap up the whinging excuses from the SNP and carry on blaming anyone else other those who are responsible.
Dave Armstrong
Talking of facts – firstly, there has been a council tax freeze for 8 years; secondly, only 2 out of 32 councils have a Labour majority – most are coalitions, many including the SNP. The idea that the massed ranks of Labour councillors are blocking SNP education policies is nonsense.