By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Wales Online, yesterday:
A Welsh secondary school has seen class sizes for maths lessons swell to 60 pupils due to a teacher shortage. Governors have been left “begging” for help according to a former top councillor.
Pupils in years seven, eight, and nine [11 to 14 year-olds]at Caldicot Comprehensive are being taught maths in classes of 60 students at a time owing to a national shortage of specialist teachers, according to the head teacher. The situation was highlighted by councillor Rachel Garrick who was a member of the ruling Labour cabinet at Monmouthshire County Council until the beginning of this year. She accused the authority of failing to support its schools.
The wider picture:
Scotland has consistently had a significantly lower overall PTR than the rest of the UK over the last eight years. The overall PTR in Scotland is currently 13.2, the lowest it has been since 2009. This is also the lowest in the UK, compared with PTRs of 18 in England, 18.4 in Wales and 17.4 in Northern Ireland
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This is where we see the sheer audacity of Labour (also applicable for the Tories too) being exposed.
They often confidently (falsely) declare that the “SNP have destroyed Scottish education”, as do many others, as if Wales and England were both a ‘Beacon of excellence’ under the control of Labour in Wales and also with what was formerly the Tories controlling England (but now the buck stops with Labour as the new UK government on England’s education system).
The statements (devoid of facts) that they , Labour and the Tories, make upon the SNP’s performance as the Scottish government on all public services is never backed up by :
Either Labour or the Tories providing irrefutable evidence that clearly shows there has been a prolonged deterioration resulting only because of the SNP’s bad governance.
Also both Labour and the Tories , fail to provide a comparable study between all four nations within the UK in their performances on public services that then , for them and us the public, clearly proves that only Scotland’s public services have suffered because of bad government via the SNP.
We are then all expected , in Scotland (and elsewhere too), to assume that only in both England and Wales, as controlled by (formerly) the Tories and (currently by) Labour, their performance as governments on public services are those who, as governments, perform exceptionally well indeed they are both assumed to be far better than Scotland’s. (all this fake assumption is minus the actual data that would prove this as being a fact ).
In fact if there are any problems occasionally highlighted with the performance in any public services in either England and Wales, we are then told there has been mitigating circumstances that have impacted the performance of that specific public service in both or either of these two countries. (England & Wales).
However those same mitigating circumstances are never , as a situation, considered applicable as a valid reason for Scotland’s public services being impacted negatively .
(Say like Brexit and Covid both impacting public services in Scotland.)
But apparently according to the media, to Labour and the Tories also then both Brexit & Covid , as significant events , only impacted both Wales and England in their government’s performance in public services .
However both Covid & Brexit are not as significant events , ever to be considered as events that were hugely (negatively) consequential for Scotland and our public services (performances).
(Of course in both England and Wales we also often hear their respective governments cite local councils as being at fault for specific public service’s having a poor performance and/or failures. Where in Scotland we are expected to believe that all of the local councils in Scotland (apart from SNP ones) are at the mercy of the mean and cruel -SNP-Scottish government withholding money from them thus preventing better services to the public).
That’s the whole problem with the UK media, Labour, Tories and too the Lib Dem’s accusations against the SNP as in ‘they easily roll of the tongue’ as accusations but frankly they are often said without any basis , real proof, actual comparison with others and one could also say that they are, as accusations, all spoken very much with ‘Forked tongue’ by those others !
(Plus the real and only reason we constantly hear and read a succession of false accusations made against the SNP is all and only because of their , the SNP’s, constitutional position and not because they are, as a government, those who perform very badly as a government or indeed worse than any other governments, )
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