In the BBC Scotland analysis of today’s exam results this ridiculous claim un-moderated by the editor:
Scottish Conservative MP Andrew Bowie said “plummeting teacher numbers and spiralling levels of school violence” had made it a difficult year for pupils. He added: “This has created a challenging environment for pupils to get the grades they hoped for, which is why they deserve a huge amount of credit for achieving great results. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8xn11nv12do
Here are the latest numbers with pupil teacher ratios, published in March 2026:
2025 – 53 475 teacher and 13.2/1 pupils per teacher
2024 – 53 412, 13.3/1
2023 – 54 033, 13.2/1 https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-and-teacher-characteristics-2025/pages/headline-statistics/
So in a well-maintained flat trend, the numbers went up and the ratio improved in the last year. I see no ‘plummet’ Andrew.
How are things in England where Andrew is a Westminster MP? Awful – 17.9/1
In Labour Wales? Even worse – 18.9/1
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Bowie must have gone to a failing school in need of special measures. He could get adult education support for his poor grasp of numbers.
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Once again, a yoon just stands there & blatantly lies, and the bbc in Scotland do not even do the tiniest bit of research into their statement just publishes it as fact in their constant war against Scotland.
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Perhaps he ran out of fingers, tho’ Alec Douglas-Home infamously used matchsticks for his “calculations”.
The Tories only ever get embarrassed when they speak, and BBC North BritsRus NEVER interrupt them with something as silly as questions.
gavinochiltree
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Time for another letter of complaint to EBC
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“Scottish Conservative MP Andrew Bowie said “plummeting teacher numbers and spiralling levels of school violence” had made it a difficult year for pupils. He added: “This has created a challenging environment for pupils to get the grades they hoped for, which is why they deserve a huge amount of credit for achieving great results“
I’ll tell Andrew Bowie what has created an actual real “challenging environment” for everyone within Scotland and that’s his party’s Tory Brexit………..which has made it very very “difficult” for us all.
(Though it was not only Brexit , as a Tory policy , that made it difficult for us all , as difficulty also happened under many previous Tory UK governments when they were led by various Tory leaders/PM’s – going all the way back to Thatcher).
Also , since Brexit, we have now seen what is a “spiralling” extreme right wing presence emerge publicly , with all of them being emboldened by Brexit (and also emboldened by parties like the Tory party)………….
……….”which is why” Tories, like Andrew Bowie , “deserve” absolutely no “credit” when they try to (always) ‘play politics’, as instead they totally “deserve a huge amount of “ the blame for the mess that everything is in economically .
Also the only thing that I have seen “plummeting” recently is both support and also votes for the Tory party within Scotland (and elsewhere within Andrew’s UK State too).
That’s because it is not just Scotland that has now recognised how terrible, how incompetent and also how unfit the Tory party are to govern – anywhere within their UK State, but others have now also realised that as well.
However as Tory MP Andrew Bowie is in brass neck mode (again) he then (wrongly) thinks that in him deflecting blame upon others it will somehow absolve his own rubbish Tory party’s role in destroying his UK State.
Don’t listen to Andrew Bowie as he’s a Tory and both his and the Tory party’s track record in politics proves that both he (as an individual Tory politician) and they (Tories as a party) are most definitely not to be trusted nor believed (ever).
Know that truth and be guided by it whenever you are in a voting booth in any election, then if you adhere to that , then we all need never be ‘led by Donkeys’ (like the Tories) ever again.
Unless some voters decide to be ‘led’ by other ‘Donkeys’ like Reform UK (England) or Restore Britain (England).
Liz S
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Again another BritNat grifter using kids to undermine the work of the SNP to make sure that those kids get the best chances possible and all while operating under ever tightening fiscal restraints with the so called UK.
I dare not think what Scotland would be like now had any EngBrit party been at the helm in Scotland the past couple of decades, it does not bear thinking about!
SNP should make sure to remind people about the terrible policies of the English government before devolution and post devolution when Labour had TEN years at the helm at Holyrood, when they sent £billions back to Westminster in London, England, saying ‘nothing to spend the £billions on in Scotland’. ‘NOTHING’, certainly NOT education, not health, or social care, infrastructure, or just any good for Scotland.
Never forget folks how terrible things were under full English rule.
No thanks!
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Oh dear, BBC Scotland and Andrew Bowie! What a match made in somewhere dreech. Both failing to report or spout the facts accurately. Now there’s a surprise 🙂
Stephen McKenzie
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Average 5th/6th year. 12 pupils to teacher ratio.
Many pupils left for colleges HNC/HND or other qualification. To uni. Aprenticeships. Working/earning and college experience.
Scotland low unemployment and investing in renewables etc. Farming, fishing, food stuffs. Tourism, medical science. Engineering. Diversity etc.
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