Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2025
I am grateful to the Liberal Democrats for bringing this topic to the chamber, to allow us to have another education debate. I was thinking about the last education debate. There was no motion or amendment from the Government because the SNP agreed with everything that the Conservatives and other parties were saying. This time, there is a Government amendment, so it clearly wants to change something—and I have to wonder which party it has done a deal with to get it through at decision time tonight. I noticed that one party is not represented in the chamber; it will be interesting to see how its members vote this evening.
I had a look to see what the cabinet secretary’s amendment will change in the motion. Will she add to it, as the other parties’ amendments would do? No—she is cutting bits out of it. What does the cabinet secretary seek to remove? She will remove
“further notes the failure of the Scottish Government to make sufficient progress on its 2021 commitment to recruit 3,500 more teachers”.
Does the cabinet secretary not believe that there has been a failure? Does she actually think that we will recruit 3,500 more teachers over the course of the remainder of this parliamentary session, to meet that target? I do not know—does Jenny Gilruth believe that? I do not think so. She has explained that it is all to do with local authorities and suchlike, but that was not the issue when her immediate-but-one predecessor made that commitment.
The education secretary at that time who made the pledge and had it inserted into the SNP manifesto was one John Swinney. What has he gone on to do? Oh yeah—lead the Government! He cannot even fulfil a commitment that he made as education secretary, in a Government that he now leads.
I do not remember an asterisk in the SNP manifesto saying, “Subject to the agreement of the local authority”. Nor do I remember the SNP saying, when asking people to vote for that commitment—a very appealing commitment to make—and for their local SNP candidate, “Please check with your local councillor whether they endorse this.”
What we are getting now are excuses. At the time, it was a bold commitment. However, once again, it is one that this SNP Government has failed to deliver on. I was reminded that it was just a year ago, when I used to sit on the Conservative front bench and put a number of questions to the First Minister, that I asked him four times whether he would commit to those 3,500 additional teachers over the course of this parliamentary session, and he refused to do so on each of those four occasions. John Swinney, who has more faces than a town clock, now seems to be saying to his Government, “We accept that we will not meet that commitment, but it is not our fault; it is someone else’s issue—and let us blame local government.” That is, sadly, the pattern that we see from this SNP Government.
Earlier in the debate, the cabinet secretary said that she would listen. However, I hope that she does more than just that; I hope that we get some answers. We need a new strategy and the delivery of additional teacher numbers across Scotland, because our current teachers, who do outstanding work, are struggling under the pressure.
I will finish with some comments from a local teacher from the Highlands who has contacted me. I hope that the cabinet secretary will take this away, or reference it in her closing remarks, because it is less partisan. This teacher tells me that she qualified as a primary teacher five years ago, having
“pursued this career with the dream of bringing my skills back to the Highlands where I grew up and hope to raise my own family.”
She chose to be placed anywhere in Scotland in her probationary year, hoping that that would increase her chances of securing a permanent role. She was not placed in Highland, so she did her probationary experience elsewhere. Now, for the past five years, she has been actively seeking permanent teaching roles in Highland, but none has been available to external applicants.
Although I accept that that is a local authority issue, I would be interested in the cabinet secretary’s response to it. Is it right that Highland Council—and, I know, others—are excluding people who want to move to a part of Scotland where we need people to come and live and make their lives, because jobs are for internal applicants only? This is someone who has deep connections to the Highlands and who wants to raise her own family there, yet she is currently being excluded from pursuing her career in teaching in an area that she loves. I hope that the cabinet secretary will take that on board and respond.
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