Published this morning and ahead of any coverage, we can offer readers in Scotland some reassurance. The key findings:
When this breaks it will be interesting to see how Reporting Scotland and others respond.
I doubt they’ll use this:
Over the year to 2019 teacher numbers increased by 288 to 52,247. This coupled with a rise in pupils of 4,738 has meant that the pupil teacher ratio has remained at 13.6. Primary class sizes have also remained broadly stable. Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland. This release provides the latest information on early learning and childcare, pupils, teachers, pupil attendance and exclusions. In 2019, the overall pupil teacher ratio (PTR) in all publicly funded schools was 13.6, the same as the previous year. The PTR shows the number of pupils per teacher so gives a measure of the size of the teaching workforce compared with the pupil population.
https://www.gov.scot/news/schools-statistics-published/
Far less this:
The all-important pupil-teacher ratio
In 2018 it was 13.8 pupils for every teacher. That was an improvement on 13.9 in 2017 and on the high point (bad) of 14.1 in 2015. In 2009 it was 13.4. In primary schools the ratio was 16.1 and in secondary schools, 12.3.
https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/teachcenssuppdata/teasup2018
In England, the ratios were far worse at 20.9 pupils per teacher in primary schools and 16.3 in secondary schools, 33.9% and 24.5% worse.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
BBC Reporting Scotland presenters sitting at desk , “now how do we spin this to make it SNP baad ” , ” I know , we will just not report it ” , problem solved ! .
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This issue you raise, John – essentially ‘bias by omission’ – is a concerning one and for reasons beyond the obvious.
There is extensive academic literature to explain that the human brain has a “negativity bias”. Apparently our brains are built with a greater sensitivity to the unpleasant or the negative. And it seems that this bias is automatic – baked-in due to evolution.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias
Because our brains react more strongly to stimuli deemed negative, our attitudes are more strongly influenced by downbeat news than good news. The article I’ve linked to notes: “Having the built-in brain apparatus supersensitive to negativity means that the same bad-news bias also is at work in every sphere of our lives at all times.”
It notes that because of this natural bias, achieving balance between positive and negative does not mean a 50-50 share of the different kinds of message or experience. Researchers have actually found that a very specific ratio exists between the amount of positivity and negativity required for balance: that magic ratio is five positives to every one negative.
Other research has found that is the frequency of small positives that matters most. Occasional big positive experiences are nice to have, it is argued, but they don’t make the necessary, sustained impact on our brain to override the natural tilt to negativity. It takes frequent small positive experiences to tip the scales – actually five times more small positives than the opposite on an ongoing basis.
Now for whatever reason, if the mainstream media and/or a public service broadcaster opts to focus on giving out predominantly negative messages – e.g. about NHS Scotland, Scottish education etc. – then it would require them, based on this research, to publish five times more positive stories to ensure balance. But if as you suggest a media outlet may simply opt NOT to publish/broadcast a positive story even where one exists – i.e. operates ‘bias by omission’ – this would clearly compound the ‘negativity bias’ problem. Any hope of ‘balance’ from such sources becomes a pipe dream.
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If the EIS or SSTA issues a press release putting a bad spin on this – and that is always possible – I suspect it will be ignored, unless they can find a sparsely populated part of the country which has had a vacancy in a subject for a period of time.
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Then there is this from 2017 about unqualified teachers in schools in England.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/25/more-than-600000-pupils-in-england-taught-by-unqualified-teachers
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