The above impending financial, then inevitably, educational chaos comes on the heels of research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealing how just far behind Scotland, in terms of the crucial funding of resources and staffing, England’s schools are.

From Scottish school spending, teachers and pupil numbers

• Luke Sibieta
• Darcey Snape

Published on 14 February 2025: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/scottish-school-spending-teachers-and-pupil-numbers

Here are the Key Findings:

1. Total spending on schools and early years education in Scotland increased by £1.7 billion or 27% in real terms between 2015–16 and 2023–24. Current plans for 2024–25 imply an effective real-terms freeze in total spending of just over £7.8 billion.
2. Spending per pupil in Scotland is about £10,100 in 2024–25, which is about 20% higher than the £8,400 per pupil level seen in England. This gap has widened from a difference of about 4% in 2009–10. Partly as a result of this higher spending, class sizes tend to be smaller in Scotland, with a pupil–teacher ratio of about 13 in 2024 compared with 17–19 in the rest of the UK.
3. Whilst spending per pupil has risen much faster in Scotland (21%) than in England (5%) since 2009–10, the real-terms growth in total schools and early years spending has been remarkably similar at 20–21%. All of the faster growth in spending per pupil in Scotland reflects slower growth in pupil numbers (1%) compared with England (13%).
4. The Scottish Government has set out the goal of increasing teacher numbers by 3,500 to 57,100 by the end of this parliament. In reality, teacher numbers have fallen very slightly and the Scottish Government is currently 3,700 short of this goal. More recently, it has instead emphasised the importance of restoring teacher numbers to 2023 levels after they fell further in 2024.
5. Pupil numbers have fallen in recent years and are projected to fall by a further 12.5% from 2024 to 2040. As a result, pupil–teacher ratios have remained stable despite recent cuts to teacher numbers. If policymakers chose to freeze teacher numbers over the long run, then the pupil–teacher ratio in mainstream schools would fall from 14 to 12 by 2040, lower than at any point in recent history.  
6. Alternatively, the fall in pupil numbers could offer councils a chance to make savings. If policymakers chose to freeze pupil–teacher ratios at 2024 levels, then teacher numbers could drop by 1,000, which would generate in-year savings of about £65–120 million by 2027. Cutting teacher numbers can be challenging in practical terms, however, as it requires reducing the number of classes or schools.

‘Darcey Snape?’ What? Nothing………..

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