Professor John Robertson OBA, former schoolteacher, education lecturer, Associate Dean

I was only a classroom teacher for three years (11 year-olds) before moving into higher education, but 18-24 year-olds can be hard work, scary at times, too. I was a bit lucky as well. I ran a winning school football team (cynically based on the Catenaccio – look it up) so if they crossed me they were oot!

I’m not, under any circumstances downplaying how awful the experience can be, at some times, for some teachers but I am, really, questioning the idea that things are now worse than they were before.

BBC Scotland this morning is headlining with a report on problems in classrooms – stress, cuts, violence – and teachers fleeing the profession. They suggested that more teachers are leaving and that ‘education experts’ say they’re leaving because of that. As an example, they had a guy without a Scottish accent, now a lorry driver, saying that things were manageable in 2005 when he started but had since become worse.

The full report on their website is based on ‘research’ by Reform Scotland’s Alison Payne, presented as independent and as an ‘education expert’. I’ll deal with them in a separate post.

Why don’t I believe the above is an accurate wider representation of the situation in school?

School violence is in decline along with youth violence generally, in Scotland

Factcheck – School violence is in decline along with youth violence generally, in Scotland

Scotland’s schools are far better staffed and funded

First, the single most effective thing government’s can do – keep classes sizes low:

The pupil-teacher ratios (PTRs) in the UK and in Scotland are as follows:

• In Scotland, the PTR is 13.2, which is the lowest national ratio since 2008. gov.scot
• In comparison, the PTRs in other parts of the UK are:
• Northern Ireland: 17.4
• England: 18.1
• Wales: 18.6. service.gov.uk
• The national PTR for the UK did not change from the previous year, remaining at 13.2 for Scotland. service.gov.uk
  These statistics highlight the differences in pupil-teacher ratios across the UK, with Scotland having the lowest ratio. ^1,2

The second thing governments can do – spend on the pupils

In the most recent year (2022–23), school spending per pupil in Scotland was over £8,500. This is over 18% or £1,300 higher than the level seen in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all around £7,200 per pupil. School spending per pupil in Scotland was already 6% higher than in England in 2010. Since then, the gap with the rest of the UK has significantly grown.³

The outcomes. Direct comparisons between educational outputs in different countries are difficult but this one makes sense:

From Literacy and numeracy standards reach record high, published in December 2024:

The proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in literacy and numeracy across primary and secondary schools has reached a new high, officials figures show.

For numeracy, a record 80.3% of pupils across P1, P4 and P7 reached expected levels, while S3 also reached a new high of 90.3%. For literacy, achievement is also now at a record high in both primary (74%) and secondary (88.3%).

The attainment gap between young people from the most and least deprived areas meeting standards in literacy has also reached a new low, according to the latest Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels 2023-24 (ACEL) statistics.⁴

In England, on 9 July 2024, for 11 year-olds [P7]:

[Only] 61% of pupils reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths, up from 60% in 2023. This is below 2019 attainment, where 65% of pupils met the standard.⁵

Direct comparison with education in other countries is not always reliable but had this stark contrast [32% better] operated in the opposite direction, with England at 80% and Scotland at 61%, you can be sure our media would be all over it.

Sources:

1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2023/pages/school-teachers/
2. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2024
3. https://ifs.org.uk/news/growing-gap-school-spending-pupil-between-scotland-and-rest-uk
4. https://www.gov.scot/news/literacy-and-numeracy-standards-reach-record-high/?s=03
5. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-2-attainment-national-headlines#:~:text=In%202024%2C%2061%25%20of%20pupils,of%20pupils%20met%20the%20standard

Finally teachers leaving?

From a Freedom of Information request by the Lib Dems in January 2024 on new teachers leaving:

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?