By Lucy Ashton
West Dunbartonshire – and indeed all of Scotland’s – education system is under ‘immense pressure’, Scottish Labour said today (Tuesday), when the party warned of a ‘pressure cooker’ environment in schools.
Statistics published this morning have shown that schools face rising levels of non-attendance, traditionally known locally as “plunking,” with almost a third of pupils missing ten per cent or more of classes.
The matter is bound to be discussed when West Dunbartonshire Council’s education committee meets this afternoon (Wednesday) for its first meeting following the Labour local authority budget cuts announced earlier this month.
A wide-ranging report from the Chief Education Officer Laura Mason, pictured left, which refers to many of the positive aspects of what is happening in our schools, is on the agenda. There is a full report on that report in this issue of The Dumbarton Democrat.
This comes on the back of rising levels of poor behaviour in schools and cuts to vital behaviour support staff, and as the SNP government has continued to fail to meet its promises on class sizes.
The statistics also show record numbers of ASN pupils in primary and secondary school and the lowest proportion of probation teachers going on to full-time employment in Scotland’s state schools since 2012/13.
Scottish Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP, pictured right, said: “Scotland’s education system is under immense pressure.
“Classrooms are like pressure cookers with staff and teacher workloads soaring, more early career teachers in precarious work, more pupils struggling in class and displaying poor behaviour and many more pupils not attending at all.
“Soaring absence rates and rising numbers of ASN pupils demand action to support Scotland’s schools.
“It is clear for all to see that the SNP government is failing to support Scotland’s teachers and school staff – with pupils paying the price.
“From broken promises on class sizes to record levels of non-attendance, we now have a whole generation of young people in Scotland being failed by this SNP Green Government.
“Jenny Gilruth, pictured left, must wake up to the crisis brewing in Scotland’s schools and act to support staff and pupils.”
See also these stories: Click on the links in red.
32.5% of pupils across Scotland missing 10% or more of classes
47 fewer behaviour support FTE staff and 36.7% of pupils with ASN
Post-induction teachers in full-time teaching falling from 56.5% in 2016/17 to 28.8% in 2022/23
Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland 2023 Supplementary
Published 19 March 2024
An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.
This information includes background statistics on schools, staff and pupils which supplement the publication of Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, 2023 that was published on 12 December 2023.
It includes a new measure that reports on persistent absence of pupils. Persistent absence has been defined as an absence rate of 10% or more across the whole school year.
The overall persistent absence rate for the 2022/23 school year was 32%, meaning that 32% of pupils in Scotland had an absence rate of 10% or more.
The total hours worked per week by pupil support assistants in 2023 was 490,750. This equates to an estimated FTE of 17,330, an increase of 725 (4.4%) on 2022. There were decreases in hours worked per week by home-school link workers (down 6.0% to 16,350), library staff (down 6.1% to 8,450) and behaviour support staff (down 25.6% to 4,800). There was a small increase in hours worked per week by educational psychologists (up 0.4% to 14,000).
Background
Further information on school statistics within Scotland is available online.
National Statistics are accredited official statistics and are produced in accordance with professional standards.