Literacy figures underline need to invest in education, reversing damaging cuts to teacher numbers
Ross Greer MSP, Education spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, today (9 May) urged investment in teachers and additional support needs staff rather than the Government's proposed reforms, after figures showed a persistent gap in reading, writing, listening and talking between pupils from the least and most deprived communities.
The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy also suggests that the reading performance of P4 and P7 pupils declined between 2012 and 2016, with the writing performance of P7 and S2 pupils falling by seven and 15 percentage points respectively.
Ross Greer, Education spokesperson for the Scottish Greens and MSP for the West of Scotland, said:
“These figures underline the need to invest in education, reversing the damaging cuts we’ve seen over the years to teacher numbers, additional support needs staff and librarians in particular. Helping students from less well-off backgrounds achieve their potential isn’t going to be helped by national testing, a league table culture or new regional structures.
“Students, parents and teachers know that what matters in education is adequate individual support for pupils. And the best way to provide that support is by bringing back the staff who have been cut, keeping class sizes down and easing teachers’ unsustainable workloads and mountains of unhelpful guidance.
“We must also focus efforts outside the classroom as a young person’s learning is far too often affected by poor housing, poor health and lack of income. By investing in these community priorities, as well as teaching and support staff in schools, we can start to close the attainment gap.”