Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2025
As I have listened to the debate, what I was planning to say has changed about three or four times, so I apologise if my speech ends up being a bit of a mishmash of everything that has been said so far.
I will start with an obvious point, which I think we all agree on: Scotland’s teachers are among the best and most hard working in the world. In places from Paisley to Peterhead, they show up every day for our young people and shape their lives. Those mentors, role models and pillars of our community deserve our heartfelt thanks.
I listened to the points that Willie Rennie made about the motion that he lodged on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, who have been newly promoted to the premier league. He made some valid observations—it was not all nonsense. The fact that I am saying that what he said was not complete and utter nonsense is an admission that my relationship with him is heading in a positive direction. He made some valid points. None of this is easy: let us not kid ourselves that there is a silver bullet or an easy way to solve the problem.
As someone who has been on the education committee in its many guises throughout his time in Parliament, I know that we need to sit down together and come up with solutions. Initially, I thought that that was what this debate was about. Mr Rennie was perhaps a bit aggressive in his delivery, but who am I to talk about that?
We talk about the geographical challenges that exist for young people who are training to be teachers. I used the phrase “from Paisley to Peterhead”. Someone who lives in Paisley is unlikely to want to go for a job in Peterhead. The cabinet secretary mentioned the possibility of future schemes to tackle that issue. We need to find a way round it. I understand why people will not move to another part of the country, away from where their family and all their support are. If they are starting a new career, they will want to have that support.
Nobody is pretending that the teaching profession does not face challenges—we all know that it does. However, I find it surprising that the Liberal Democrat motion has been framed in such a doom-and-gloom manner, to the extent that it undermines much of the good work that our teachers are doing in our communities.