The Scottish Conservatives want school days lengthened to help pupils “catch up” with learning disrupted by the Covid pandemic.
The party’s manifesto for the Scottish council elections on 5 May calls on the government to fund a pilot project exploring the impact of longer days and extra teaching.
Other policies from the Tories - who have opposed a Scottish government policy to reduce teachers’ class-contact time - include local tutoring schemes and after-school classes.
Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross said his councillors would be “totally focused” on helping pupils to “catch up”.
The party said Covid had an “enormous impact on our children and young people’s education”, so policies would include local tutoring schemes and extra funding for after-school classes. There would also be payments for teachers who deliver extra exam revision sessions for students who need more help.
The manifesto says Tory councillors would “pressure the SNP government to fund a pilot extension to the school day, to further help pupils to catch up on missed learning”.
It also reiterates the Conservative aim of replacing the Curriculum for Excellence.
SNP MSP Kaukab Stewart, a former teacher who is now deputy convener of the Scottish Parliament Education, Children and Young People Committee, said: “The pandemic undoubtedly presented huge challenges for our children, young people, teachers and parents but the SNP’s commitment to ensuring all of Scotland’s children and young people get the best start has never wavered.
“Improving educational outcomes is at the heart of our learning recovery. That’s why we’re investing £1 billion through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, recruiting almost 5,000 additional teachers and 500 support staff since before the pandemic, providing access to a digital device for every school pupil, tackling the costs of the school day, and more.”
Ross Greer, Scottish Greens education spokesperson, said: “The Tories are going to increasingly absurd lengths to take Scotland’s education system back a hundred years.
“Time in school wasn’t the only thing our children missed due to the pandemic, they also lost out on social opportunities, especially with friends and family. Forcing them to spend more time in school at the expense of the myriad of other things that bring joy in their lives would be a disaster for the mental health of an already struggling generation.
“And that’s before even thinking about our massively overworked teachers, who are already doing some of the longest overtime in the developed world.”
Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said: “We should be looking to make the most of the time [teachers and pupils] have instead.
“The top priority should be cutting class sizes by guaranteeing every qualified teacher a job, encouraging specialist additional support needs training, and resolving the issue of hard-to-fill teaching posts through three-year packages for probationer teachers for specific areas.”
