Meeting of the Parliament 18 May 2022
I certainly do, but I do not think that it has any relevance to the point that I am making. It is entirely appropriate that we take the opportunity to do the best that we can for young people, but I say to Kaukab Stewart, and to other SNP members and the Greens, that making cuts to their communities does not serve the poorest kids in this country well. It means asking them to pay the costs of provision of services to other parts of the community. It is a disservice to the EIS to pretend it supports that.
Kaukab Stewart will recall that the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers said:
“It is clearly not right to be making those swingeing cuts”.—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 20 April 2022; c 32.]
Jim Thewliss, of School Leaders Scotland, said:
“it is surely immoral to take away that funding.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 20 April 2022; c 34.]
He said that it is “immoral”.
In the words of a headteacher who submitted evidence to the education committee, teachers are “raging.” The single most important thing that could be done to improve the attainment challenge is, as she said, to put the money back.
In the end, this is a very simple matter, but it tells us an awful lot about priorities, because the SNP and the Greens are asking us to believe the—frankly—ludicrous proposition that the best way to support poor kids is to cut support for areas that have the highest numbers of poor kids living in them.
No member can, in good conscience, say in the morning that education for our poorest children is their “defining mission” then vote in the afternoon to cut funds.
I move,
That the Parliament calls on the Scottish Government to revise plans for the Scottish Attainment Challenge to reinstate full funding to the nine original Attainment Challenge Authorities.