Give schools a chance

NICOLA Sturgeon claims that education is a ‘defining mission’ for her Government.

It should, therefore, be a concern for the First Minister, as well as for children and their parents, to see that funding for Scotland’s schools has dwindled under the SNP’s watch.

The SNP likes to claim that it has protected schools from budget cuts, with initiatives such as its Pupil Equity Fund giving £120million direct to school head teachers.

However, an independent analysis has revealed the true scale of the financial strain facing schools. Since 2010, they have had more than £400million stripped from their day-to-day funds.

That means that, rather than using the pupil equity fund as it was intended to tackle the attainment gap, some head teachers are having to use it instead to paper over the cracks and cover funding gaps.

Of course, as the SNP is quick to point out, it is Scotland’s 32 local authorities who are directly responsible for setting school budgets. But there can be little doubt that they are under huge financial strain and are increasingly dissatisfied with measly funding allocations from the Scottish Government leaving them little choice but to find ways of cutting services, including in schools.

That has an impact in the classroom and it is no surprise that increasing numbers of primary pupils are being taught in ‘supersize’ classes of 30 or more despite the SNP getting elected in 2007 on the back of a promise to cut P1-3 classes to a maximum of 18.

It is no surprise that Scotland is sliding down the international rankings in reading, maths and science and now lagging behind former Soviet bloc nations.

To stand any chance of reviving our education system will require a renewed focus and an end to the salami slicing of school budgets by government and councils.