Meeting of the Parliament 11 June 2026 [Last updated 19:16]
The First Minister is quick to lean into the likes of e-Sgoil, but that requires far more support than the Government is currently providing.
I am not sure that the First Minister fully understands just how depressing it is for new teachers to come out of training and to have to head to the likes of Dubai or Darwin for a job because they cannot find one here. It makes no sense. On the one hand, we have teachers who cannot find jobs and, on the other, subjects are being cut due to a lack of teachers.
One practical way in which we can fill those vacancies is to make it much easier for primary school teachers to requalify to work in our secondary schools. Indeed, the General Teaching Council for Scotland said that that was a
“practical solution for … employers to address specific recruitment issues.”
Scotland’s young people deserve the right to study whatever they want, wherever they are. Will the First Minister instruct his Government to sit down with the Liberal Democrats and teaching bodies to deliver sensible solutions such as that?