Hansard

I draw members’ attention to the fact that I have a daughter who is head of department in a secondary school and my youngest has just started secondary school.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in the debate on education. It is a subject that we do not debate often enough. Far too often, it is the Opposition which forces the Government to face up to its responsibilities in what is a devolved portfolio.

However, I start where there is consensus. I was delighted when the Scottish Conservatives announced that they would put forward a policy commitment to provide free school lunches in all primary schools. I have always stated that education is the solution to health and welfare. From the perspective of my health brief, I can say that ensuring access to nutritious and quality food is an essential element of academic attainment as well as good physical and mental health. The attainment gap and inequalities continue to grow. It was therefore welcome that the SNP decided to follow a similar path. Given the inclusion in Labour’s most recent manifesto of a like-minded policy, it would seem that agreement has broken out across the chamber.

It would be helpful if local public food procurement were adopted in tandem with that policy. Perhaps that would allow us to make a positive impact on the rural economy as well as on the environmental issues that are often discussed in the Parliament.

In the remainder of my time, I will focus on the mental health and wellbeing of our teachers and staff, and on the increasing pressure that has been heaped upon them by the issues that Jamie Greene has addressed in the Scottish Conservative motion.

There is a lack of teachers. At the moment, Scottish Conservatives are calling for the approximately 2,000 teachers that Scotland lacks. The shortfall has been exacerbated by the forced absence from the classroom of many of our teaching staff because of the Covid pandemic.

We cannot ignore the pressure that teachers were under pre-Covid. The piles of paperwork and the tick-box exercises have continued to creep into their daily work. I have always advocated that, given that teachers are trained to teach, the system should allow them to get on with the job that they were trained for and about which they feel so passionately. Creating that positive working environment speaks directly to the recruitment and retention of staff. Not only does having to spend increasing chunks of their day on paperwork impinge on teachers’ ability and desire to teach but it discourages them from potentially getting involved with extra-curricular activities—I just thought I would slide that in there, Presiding Officer, because it is another of my consistent calls.

Covid has raised the issue of health and wellbeing to the top of the agenda. A teacher recently told me about a huge rise in pupils reporting with mental health and anxiety issues. They said that teachers do not have the resources to deal with that and are concerned by the potential to miss something that might lead to a tragedy further down the line. Surely that is too much pressure and stress for teachers to have to cope with over and above their day-to-day pressures.

Last week, we debated mental health support for children. There was general agreement that not enough is being done, especially in the current climate. That must have a knock-on effect on those who are charged with looking after our children in the education system. The pressures of exams or assessment processes, the uncertainty, which feeds pupils’ anxieties, and the inability of teachers to prepare for those eventualities because of a lack of guidance and clarity from the Scottish Government will obviously affect morale.

We must remember that we are in December and nearly into a new year, and so just a few short months from when the assessments and exams would have been timetabled. I simply do not think that the Scottish Government is giving our teachers sufficient resources or time to plan properly.

The Scottish Government’s report card on education was poor pre-Covid. The current crisis has highlighted its inability to take anything like the decisive action that we should expect from our Government. Our teachers, school staff and pupils deserve better.