Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2025
We will not be able to tackle the workforce challenges in education until we tackle the massive issues in our schools, which this Government has failed to do. Jackie Dunbar said that STEM graduates are highly sought after, which is right. However, given the challenges that teachers are facing, including burnout and behavioural problems in our schools, people weighing up their career after graduation are highly likely to go somewhere other than teaching. It is not always about money; there is also the stress and everything else that goes with being a teacher these days.
The record of this SNP Government is one of broken promises. It was first elected on a promise of cutting class sizes. The cabinet secretary talked about the teacher pupil ratio being lower in Scotland than elsewhere, which, as a generalisation, it might be. However, in 2022, I made a freedom of information request asking what class sizes were in Fife. The response showed that, in local primary schools, there were 412 classes with more than 25 pupils, and 136 classes with more than 30 pupils. I know that, in many of those classes, there is one teacher to 30 pupils, or one teacher to 25 pupils. Teachers have told me that they simply do not have the time to spend with children in order to bring them on.
We have the atrocious situation in which far too many children are going from primary school to secondary school not equipped to take in the lessons there. As a former teacher, the cabinet secretary will know that teachers expect primary school pupils to come through at a certain level and that, if they do not come through at that level, teachers have to spend a lot of time trying to support them. We doom too many children to failure.
Earlier, the Green MSP Maggie Chapman spoke about budgets. She was right to do so. Around 50 per cent of local authorities’ budgets go on education. Local authorities have had to deal with pressures for a good number of years, and education budgets have taken a hit. Councillors who have to put a budget together cannot make cuts without looking at the education service.
We need to address the issue of resources and finances, and we need to look at class sizes so that, as children come through, they have the best opportunity to achieve their full potential. Right now, they are being denied that. The cabinet secretary must take some responsibility for that.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a young woman in Fife who told me that, after graduating as a teacher, she got a temporary contract for a year in a primary school, which she loved. She was enjoying that job, but it came to an end, and she is now running around trying to get another job in teaching. As she cannot find a job in teaching, she is having to look elsewhere.
We need more teachers and smaller class sizes, we need to ensure that there are more teaching assistants in our classrooms and we need to look at additional support needs. Those are the issues that come through time and time again, but the Government does not seem to be addressing any of them. That is the problem. I have outlined what needs to happen. The Government needs to accept its responsibility for education—otherwise, what is the point of having an education secretary?