The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser closing on Friday, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS 

In the Scotsman, just two days ago:

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie said: “The attainment gap got bigger last year. Ministers have flunked it. The SNP now have no chance of closing the poverty-related attainment gap next year as they promised a decade ago.

Just over a year ago, Rennie failed his Primary 7 maths assessment:

The Herald on January 5th 2024, had:

The number of new teachers fleeing the profession has spiked this year as opposition politicians blame poor pay and violence in classrooms for the exodus.

More than 1300 teachers have left the profession within the first five years of their career since 2018, according to figures from the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).

Who asked the GTC for those figures? The Lib Dumbs, Scotland’s second-smallest party in Holyrood. Their Education spokesperson – Willie Rennie.

The totals, 183, 187, 238, 182, 219, 338, do suggest an increasing trend but an 11 year-old being taught about the value of percentages might ask to see those just in case they’re not increasing.

The Lib Dumbs carefully did not ask for those but we know, because BBC Scotland told us in 2018:

Student teacher intake increased for three years in a row, reaching 3,902 in 2018 compared to 3,376 in 2015-16.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46501068

So, in 2019, around 500 more trainees are arriving in Scottish schools than had been the case only 3 years before and the raw number leaving within 5 years increases by around 150?

Without access to the year-by-year student intake data, I can’t be sure but might the percentage leaving be reducing? Looks that way to me.

And why?

Back to 2025 and Willie’s return to full-blown flunkery, the stuff he and the Scotsman prefer you not to know;

Research – school achievement higher and attainment gaps far smaller in Scotland than in rest of UK

The one-year attainment gap has widened but the far more important longer-term trend is: Most disadvantaged attainment level more than doubles in only 12 years

Scotland closes attainment gap, hits record literacy and numeracy standards, 32% above England, after maintaining 36% more teachers

And, after 7 months of Labour Government:

Labour Government to force cuts that further widen the staffing spending and consequently the attainment gap between schools in Scotland and England

Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper [98!] and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/

The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116

About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Bro