Meeting of the Parliament 13 December 2023
Yes, I do. The chamber is on board with the principle of curriculum for excellence, but implementation, particularly under the current Government, has all too often been found wanting.
We also need to examine teacher numbers. There are more than 1,500 fewer secondary school teachers now than there were when the Scottish National Party came to power, and there are now 350 fewer primary school teachers than there were last year. Statistics that were released yesterday show that the number of teachers who are still teaching after their teacher induction scheme is lower this year than it was in every other year since 2017, and that almost 5,000 of those who have gone on to teach are on temporary contracts, which fuels job insecurity and lowers morale. That is in the context of the preference waiver payment failing, with fewer than 7 per cent of probationer teachers agreeing that they can be sent anywhere in Scotland, which leads to the teacher shortages in places such as the north-east that I constantly hear about. Meanwhile, in the midst of rocketing numbers of pupils reporting having additional support needs, there has been a decline of 700 support for learning teachers.
All of that has happened in the context of the average class size remaining at just over 23 on average, as we learned yesterday, despite a promise to cut class sizes in primary 1 to P3 to 18 pupils or fewer. That is why it is disappointing that the Liberal Democrat amendment was not accepted for debate.