Today the Scottish Conservatives unveiled proposals to recruit 3,000 more teachers over the next Parliament.
Borders politicians Rachael Hamilton MSP and John Lamont MP backed the plans, which would cost £550 million.
The 'Restore our schools' plan, launched by the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross MP includes:
• A £550 million proposal to deliver 3000 more teachers.
• Plans for free school meals at both breakfast and lunch for every primary pupil.
• A national tutoring programme, particularly for Maths and English.
• A commitment to a new way to measure and target the poverty-related attainment gap.
• A new school and education inspection body to improve performance.
The Scottish Borders would see more than 60 new teachers across the area. The recruitment drive would end teacher shortages that have arisen since the SNP came into power in 2007.
The paper also calls for a dedicated STEM teacher to be available in every Primary school, increased opportunities for career switchers to move into teaching and a new campaign to encourage the best and brightest to take up teaching.
Mrs Hamilton and Mr Lamont believed the additional new teachers would prove vital in improving educational standards, narrowing the poverty-related attainment gap and ensuring that teacher workload is reduced.
Rachael Hamilton MSP said:
“The SNP have presided over years of Scotland tumbling down the international league tables, and we need to restore Scottish education back to the gold standard it once was.
“It shouldn’t matter where you go to school, every child in Scotland deserves a good quality education and our plans offer just that.
“Under the SNP, teacher numbers have plummeted with one in thirty posts gone since 2007.
“Our plans to recruit 3,000 teachers would entirely remove this shortfall. For the Scottish Borders, this could mean an additional 61 teachers.
“We have spent the last six years dividing our country. Let’s now come together to spend the next six years on rebuilding Scotland and restoring excellence in our schools”.
John Lamont MP said:
“These exciting new proposals from Douglas Ross show that a government that is focussed on improving Scotland’s education system is possible. Our schools used to be ranked highly across the world and this will allow us to be proud of education again.
“With £550m spent on teachers, and a national tutoring programme for Maths and English, young people will finally have a chance to achieve regardless of their background. Under the SNP, the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils has become unacceptable.
“Providing free school meals both at breakfast and lunch for every primary pupil will also improve attainment, whilst ensuring pupils get healthy and fulfilling meals.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said:
“Scotland’s schools were once the envy of the world. Now, too many pupils see their ambitions dashed by a system stacked against them.
“Every year, thousands of Scottish children are unfairly judged by where they live and left behind, robbed of their chance to succeed because the government puts its own ambitions before theirs.
“The SNP will never choose schools over separation. Six years to the day from the independence referendum, despite polling today confirming Scottish people have more important priorities, the SNP still won’t put their own goals to one side, even in the middle of a pandemic.
“But we won’t close the attainment gap with a Referendum Bill. We’ll close it with action. We’ll close it with a laser focus on targeting poverty at school and a clear goal to restore teacher numbers.
“We owe it to the next generation to move on from the division of 2014 and finally make education our country’s top priority.”
