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.
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.