The SNP Scottish Government has not led one single debate on education in this parliamentary year, despite it being their top priority, with the last Government led debate held on 2nd November 2017.

At the last FMQs of the Scottish Parliament session on 27 June, Scottish Labour highlighted the government’s poor education record – including the teacher recruitment crisis, narrowing of the curriculum, the explosion of multi-level teaching and the growing crisis in additional support needs.

In addition to their poor record in debating the subject, new figures show that the SNP government now spend over one thousand pounds less per student on teaching in Scottish universities than they did when they came into office in 2007.

This is on top of a reduction in spending of £427 per pupil in primary schools and warnings from the Auditor General that colleges are not achieving financial sustainability.

Jackie said:

“This SNP government claim that education is their top priority, but their record simply doesn’t reflect this.

“Not only is there a teacher recruitment crisis and a narrowing of the curriculum, but spending per pupil is less than it was when they came into office.

“With a record like this, it is no surprise that education is not something that this government wants to debate.”