Scottish first minister John Swinney has said he wants all children to benefit from after-school clubs, personal tuition and smaller class sizes - not just those in advantaged communities.
He made his comments this morning as he set out his vision for eradicating child poverty.
Mr Swinney said he was determined “to make progress as swiftly as possible” to end child poverty in Scotland - including putting in place the systems needed to end Labour’s two-child cap - but added that he was “under no illusions” it would happen “overnight”.
FM’s proudest education achievement
He said it would take “strong, collective action in the long-term” and flagged education as a key strand of the government’s approach.
Mr Swinney said the government had introduced many education initiatives since it came to power in 2007, but the one he was “most proud of” was the expansion of funded early learning and childcare to 1,140 hours.
The policy means three- and four-year-olds and some two-year-olds are entitled to the same amount of time in nursery as older children spend in school.
Mr Swinney also highlighted the introduction of Pupil Equity Funding, which goes directly to headteachers based on the number of pupils they have registered for free meals, and cited the Big Noise music education project, which started in Stirling where he was speaking, as a project that had transformed lives.
Stirling Council is considering cutting funding to its music service to save £250,000 in a move that campaigners say would “effectively mean the end of over 60 years of instrumental and vocal teaching”, but this was not mentioned today.
Mr Swinney’s nod to the importance of small class sizes came next.
He said: “I want children in our most disadvantaged communities to have the same opportunities - after-school clubs, personal tuition, smaller class sizes - that are enjoyed by pupils in our most advantaged communities.”
Long history of class sizes policy
Class sizes have not featured as an SNP priority for years; a promise in the party’s 2007 Scottish Parliament election manifesto to reduce class sizes to 18 in the early years of primary became something of a milestone during its early years in power.
The policy was never realised and was gradually watered down, probably in large part due to the global financial crash in 2008 and the ripple effects on national and local budgets.
Class sizes in P1 were eventually capped at 25, but the latest figures on class sizes published in December lay bare the extent to which the party failed to shift the dial.
Some initial progress was made - in 2010, 21.6 per cent of P1-3s were in classes of 18 or fewer - but it was short lived. A total of 12.9 per cent of P1-3 pupils were in class sizes of 18 or fewer in 2024; the year before the SNP came to power in 2006 that figure was 12.7 per cent.
Yet, after all this time, could we see a return to a policy focus on class sizes?
Class sizes key for ASN and behaviour
The teaching unions would certainly welcome it. While the government might have long abandoned its pledge to reduce class sizes, the EIS has always continued to call for cuts to help teachers cope with the range of additional support needs that pupils now have, as well as the increase in violence and aggression post-pandemic.
Still, it is hard to see smaller class sizes becoming a reality any time soon when the government has a more recent pledge to deliver: the reduction in teacher class-contact time by 90 minutes a week pledged in its 2021 manifesto.
Like reducing class sizes, that will require an influx of extra staff and - while there is talk of an oversupply of primary teachers - it seems unlikely that there will be enough to deliver on both policies simultaneously.
Perhaps, therefore, Mr Swinney would be best advised to focus on fulfilling the education pledges the SNP has already made - or at least those it has made most recently.
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