Meeting of the Parliament 17 January 2024
This is an incredibly important debate, because I think that we would all agree that education is the key brief in sorting out the myriad of issues that Scotland faces after 16 years of Scottish National Party Government. However, I have a mere four minutes to set out the Scottish Conservatives’ proposition as, yet again, it is left to the Opposition parties to use our debating time to demand that education be on the agenda.
Despite the Opposition having significantly fewer opportunities; despite the endemic violence in our schools, which the Scottish Conservatives forced a debate on last summer; despite the PISA figures from last year showing sliding standards, which the Scottish Conservatives also forced a debate on; and despite plummeting teacher numbers and morale due to a lack of resources, the Opposition has called more debates on education than the Scottish Government has since the current cabinet secretary took office. The Government has called one such debate in that time, yet it dares to criticise Pam Duncan-Glancy for bringing this debate to the chamber. Perhaps that tells Parliament all that it needs to know about where the Government’s priorities lie.
I welcome Labour’s motion. It is right to highlight the appalling statistics that the Government has presided over, including—to go into more detail—the PISA results, which show that Scotland’s maths, reading and science scores are plummeting, sometimes to record lows. My research has revealed that more than 11,000 teachers and support staff are stuck on temporary contracts, while more than 6,000 teachers and school staff were signed off with stress or poor mental health during the past academic year. There is the fact that, last year, 600 pupils had zero attendance at school, with one in eight, on average, absent on any day—and the Scottish Government does not even collate data on who they are or why they are away. There is also the failure, as we heard, to deliver free breakfasts to primary and special school children, as the Government promised.
I could add other areas where the Scottish Government is falling behind, such as the fact that more than 1,000 Scottish schools lack life-saving defibrillators, or that rural schools are twice as likely to be in a poor condition than urban schools. Of course, there is the abject failure to tackle violence in schools, whether against teachers or other pupils, despite the important briefing that we received from Zero Tolerance concerning how rife violence against women and girls and misogyny are in Scottish schools.
Into that, however, the cabinet secretary submits an amendment that deletes all the substantive points that are raised by the Labour motion. Instead of acknowledging the issues and saying, “Let’s work together to the betterment of Scotland and its people,” the Government prefers to ignore the reality and blames everyone and anyone but itself.
As my time is limited, I will cut to the chase. My amendment seeks to recognise the issues that the Labour motion, which we will vote for, raises, but it also seeks to help the Government with solutions. Last April, the Scottish Conservatives proposed a new deal for teachers, which set out eight priorities to help our teachers. Those include more powers to headteachers and budgetary autonomy, cutting red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, reforming teachers’ pay and contracts, and introducing life skills as a core part of the curriculum. Crucially, we also note the EIS’s stand up for quality education campaign, and we echo in our new deal its calls for smaller class sizes, less contact time and proper resourcing for ASN and schools more generally.
We all want what is best for Scottish education. We want to support our teachers, school staff and pupils in their efforts to be the best that they can be, to deliver a positive future for themselves and others, and to help Scotland’s economic and social recovery from the past 16 years of the SNP Government. Therefore, at decision time tonight, let us put the politics aside and do what is right for Scottish education. Let us vote for the Labour motion to acknowledge the issues, and then start to move forward with the constructive solutions proposed by Pam Duncan-Glancy, the EIS and the Scottish Conservatives by voting for the amendment in my name, which I hereby move.
I move amendment S6M-11875.1, to insert at end:
“; supports the principles of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party’s New Deal for Teachers, and calls on the Scottish Government to reduce contact time and class sizes and end the culture of temporary contracts.”
15:12Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.