Sturgeon on the rack over crisis in our classrooms

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of presiding over a classroom ‘recruitment crisis’ as seven out of ten secondary schools insist they cannot offer all the subjects they want.

The First Minister was attacked over Scotland’s ‘failing’ education system yesterday after a string of shocking revelations about the country’s schools.

Ruth Davidson criticised Miss Sturgeon over the SNP’s record on education as the Nationalists continued to celebrate a decade of being in power.

The Scottish Conservative leader stated that there were now 4,000 fewer teachers in Scotland than when the SNP came to power in 2007.

She told Miss Sturgeon that 70 per cent of Scottish high schools say they are ‘constrained in the subjects they can offer their (S4) pupils because of teacher shortage’.

The revelation comes after survey results published last week showed literacy and numeracy standards had plummeted.

Meanwhile, trainee teachers have complained that some are not reaching the required level in the key subject areas to teach children of just 11.

During First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday, Miss Davidson insisted Scotland’s teacher shortage was now a ‘crisis’.

She said: ‘Instead of facing this crisis, what do we get?

‘This week we’ve seen backslapping of ten years in power while education is getting worse. This is a First Minister who has presided over a teacher recruitment crisis, who has fallen asleep at the wheel on education.

‘Isn’t it time we had a First Minister who doesn’t just admit the occasional mistake but actually does something about all of them?’ Miss Davidson pressed the SNP leader to do more to increase the number of teachers, urging Miss Sturgeon to consider the Teach First scheme, which places university graduates in classrooms.

The programme has been hugely popular and successful in England, with almost 400 ‘enthusiastic’ Scots signing up to take part.

But as the project is not available in Scotland they have been forced to teach in other parts of the UK.

Miss Davidson said: ‘You have to question whether the First Minister really understands the problems we face because we have 4,000 fewer teachers than when she came to power. We aren’t recruiting nearly enough trainees to fill the gaps.’

Miss Sturgeon claimed she was ‘open-minded to looking at ideas about how we get more people into teaching’, but stressed it was important to ‘make sure these ideas work for Scottish education’.

She said she had held talks with the organisation – but added a headteacher in London had shared reservations about Teach First with her.

Miss Sturgeon then accused of Miss Davidson of doing a ‘disservice to teachers and pupils across the country’ by bringing up the Government’s poor record on education. She said: ‘We do not have a failing education system in Scotland. Ruth Davidson should be ashamed standing up here suggesting we do.’

Miss Sturgeon added: ‘It is unfortunate that she week after week stands up here and rightly points to areas where we need to improve, but repeatedly fails to talk about the improvements we are seeing in Scottish education.’

Last week Miss Sturgeon was accused of failing a generation of Scottish children after the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy revealed that fewer than half of 13 and 14-year-olds are performing well in writing.

Miss Sturgeon tried to put a gloss on the faltering system by claiming other areas are doing well.