By Bill Heaney
What school did you went to? Literacy levels in our schools are decling by the day.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie has criticised the Scottish Government for doing next to nothing to promote English teaching as a career.
An analysis by his party found that the number of English teachers has fallen by 12 per cent since the SNP first came to power.
Scottish Government statistics published in March reveal that the number of English teachers in secondary schools across Scotland has fallen from 2,992 in 2008 to 2,632 – a decline of 12 per cent.
The figures come as Scotland recorded its worst ever score in reading in the recent PISA international comparison of countries’ education systems, published in December 2023.
Mr Rennie, pictured right, said: “With concerning literacy rates, a decline in English teacher numbers won’t help reverse the decline.
“On the SNP’s watch, both teachers and prospective teachers feel demoralised and disillusioned.
“Violence is becoming increasingly prominent in schools; support is being stripped out of classrooms and industrial disputes are a regular occurrence.
“If children don’t have teachers in core subjects like English, then we could all pay a heavy price in the long-term because Scotland needs the best skills and talent to compete for the best jobs and industries of the future.
“It’s time to stop asking our teachers to perform miracles; we need a real plan to get Scottish education back on track.
“That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats would deliver a strategy to tackle poor behaviour in class, proper stable contracts for teachers to depend on and greater in-class support.”
- You can find the figures for the fall in English teacher numbers at table 3.9 here
- You can find the PISA scores from December 2023 here
- The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels statistics, published by the Scottish Government in December 2023, showed that the poverty related attainment gap for P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined has narrowed by just 1.6% in literacy since 2016/17.
- According to the same statistics, the poverty related attainment gap for S3 pupils achieving at least third level literacy is 0.1% worse than it was in 2016/17. You can read more about these statistics here
How does West Dunbartonshire fare when it comes to pupils being able to read and write by the time they leave school?
The council’s £500,000 a year communications department refuses to discuss this with The Democrat.
So how does West Dunbartonshire fare in the school standards list? That’s a good question.
Using the recent tabulation of all schools across Scotland and the percentage of five or more higher grades achieved West Dunbartonshire is a very mixed bag.
Schools like OLSP are in the upper quartile. However, the VOL Academy is in the bottom decile coming in at 305th out of 347 schools with others in between. Now whilst this is only one metric of achievement schools like Jordanhill, St Ninian’s in Eastwood, Boclair and Bearsden academies are among those in the top ten.
So why the big difference? That is the big question indeed. WDC and the Scottish Government over the last years has spent a fortune on new schools. OLSP performs well. So what is the difference? Are the people in the schools that do well genetically brighter than those in the schools that don’t perform? Or is the answer something to do with attitude, aspiration and focus?
Education is, or should be the route to a more comfortable life. Indeed, if low level of education and low wages were the recipe for economic success then parts of our area would be a superpower. So why the reluctance to stick in at school and achieve results?
Or is it as Willie Rennie says all the SNP’s fault for demoralising teachers.
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