What Scotland's political parties have planned for education
The Scottish party manifestos for Holyrood have a core focus on education - here are the main pledges
How will the parties tackle violence in schools?
Reform UK says it will provide “advanced support” to head teachers in maintaining discipline in the classroom by “using exclusion as an essential tool”.
Labour says it will back teachers up on discipline with an enforceable National Behaviour Charter, expand the number of campus cops, improve attendance with Family Network Coordinators, and create a national attendance register.
The Scottish Conservatives say they would “empower headteachers by giving them exclusive authority to permanently exclude the most disruptive pupils”.
The Lib Dems don’t mention violence in schools, nor do the Scottish Greens.
Do the parties plan on banning mobile phones in classrooms?
Reform - yes
Labour - yes
Tories - yes
SNP - yes
Lib Dems - silent
Scottish Greens - silent
How best should the school curriculum be reformed?
Reform UK says it will “reboot” the Curriculum for Excellence but “giving it a knowledge-based curriculum at its core”. Testing is a major theme in setting out what this reboot would look like.
It wants to bring back “rigorous examination and standardised testing” as the means of doing this, while re-introducing the Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy, and re-joining all international education surveys.
It also aims to give head teachers control of the school budget - even though head teachers already have control over how their school funds are spent.
Secondary schools would be allowed to apply for the self-governance model used by Jordanhill College School under a Reform government. The Scottish Tories would also introduce this measure.
Reform would also scrap Education Scotland, as would the Scottish Conservatives.
The Tories claim they would scrap Curriculum for Excellence and replace it with a new Curriculum for Aspiration.
They want to get back to basics and say every child will learn their times tables and introduce the use of systematic synthetic phonics. Like Reform, the party plans to bring back we would bring back the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy and focus on exam-based learning.
Scottish Labour says it will replace the SNP’s discredited primary school testing with “standardised, sample-based testing and international benchmarking”.
As part of what it calls an “education recovery programme” it further says it will hire “up to” 2,000 specialist teachers and 1,500 more classroom assistants.
The Lib Dems say they would ask the Curriculum and Assessment board to provide leadership on enhancing all pupils’ digital literacy and AI comprehension, financial skills and teamwork.
They also want to rejoin international testing frameworks but, curiously, say they would abolish SNP league tables based on nationalised testing - the SNP has never produced league tables for schools and is diametrically opposed to them.
The Scottish Greens don’t cross paths with the Tories and Reform often but they do also want to bring back the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy to monitor national performance.
How about the college sector?
Reform does not explicitly mention colleges, although it references skills and training.
Both Reform and Labour mention the addition of entrepreneurialism in schools.
The Tories say they would reform college funding and enhance borrowing powers. The party says it would create new partnerships between schools and colleges to allow pupils who are disengaged from school to go to college or start an apprenticeship aged 14 or 15.
The SNP says it will continue the review of the college sector started under the last parliament.
The Lib Dems would “securely fund” colleges but do not give specific details for how they’d do so.
The Scottish Greens would increase in the number of reserved board places for staff and student representatives and reserve places for local councillors.
The party would also support colleges to maximise their income from the private sector.
Universities are having a tough time so how would the parties help?
Reform says: “Rather than sending half of school-leavers to universities, instead we will direct them into trades via technical colleges.”
The party pledges to “undertake a comprehensive review of our university funding to ensure degrees are meaningful, value-for-money and grounded in genuine academic merit rather than EDI or sustainability metrics” but does not elaborate further.
It makes no mention of free tuition.
Scottish Labour promises to protect free tuition for undergraduates and to “protect the sustainability of the sector” with a “future funding and governance model”. It will also, the party says, support research capacity.
Labour says it will create regional employability hubs in local colleges for anyone who wants to find work or retrain to boost their earnings.
The Tories would also maintain free tuition but encourage pupils to go down other paths than higher education.
The SNP will, of course, also protect free tuition. The party says it will continue the review of the university sector started under the last parliament.
The Lib Dems plan to help university “punch above their weight in research” and “undertake outreach work in schools in disadvantaged areas”.
The Scottish Greens would protect free tuition and suspend interest payments on student loans during maternity and parental leave.
And for young people with ASN?
Scottish Labour and the Scottish Tories both say they will put additional supports in classrooms for pupils with ASN.
The Tories go a step further and say they will commit to a full national review of the current approach to mainstreaming.
The SNP says it will ensure every child in Scotland with ASN will be supported through specialist provision in their school.
The Lib Dems pledge to recruit more expert staff, including specialist behaviour support, ASN teachers, speech and language therapists, and educational psychologists.
The Scottish Greens would establish formal recognition of further education qualifications for additional needs assistants and establish an accreditation and registration system through the General Teaching Council Scotland.
Reform UK makes no pledges for ASN.
Care experienced young people need extra support
Scottish Labour says it will support the implementation of The Promise, to transform the care system by 2030, should it take the reins at Holyrood, as do the Scottish Conservatives although neither gives specifics.
The Scottish Greens say they would complete the delivery of The Promise.
Reform UK does not mention care experienced young people.
What about any added extras?
Labour also promises swimming lessons, breakfast clubs, music tuition and mentoring programmes.
The Tories say they will scrap the introduction of VAT on private school fees. They would also pay teachers to run after school clubs for pupils and allow them to take paid sabbaticals to travel to and learn from schools overseas.
The SNP plans to partner with the Dollywood Foundation to introduce free books for children to take home.
The Lib Dems also want to expand access to extra curricular activities such as music, sport, drama, debating and entrepreneurship.
The Greens would introduce GTCS registration for school-based instrumental music teachers – creating a professionally-recognised national music teaching force.
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