A week on Monday the new leader of the SNP - and the new first minister of Scotland - will be announced. To date the candidates - health secretary Humza Yousaf, finance secretary Kate Forbes and ex-minister Ash Regan - have been slogging it out in a number of televised debates and until the final debate, aired last night on the BBC, education had been largely conspicuous by its absence.

Outgoing FM Nicola Sturgeon chose to make closing the disadvantage-related attainment gap her defining mission back in 2015 but last week Scottish Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra accused the prospective candidates of “a conspiracy of silence on education”. He said that the SNP had “given up on improving education in Scotland” and had “turned its back on the legacy of the Sturgeon government”.

Last night in BBC Scotland’s SNP leadership debate education finally got more than a cursory mention when the candidates were asked by an audience member: “Why would the Scottish education system be better off with you as first minister?”

Ms Regan said “education is clearly one of the most fundamental things we provide as a government”. She said that as FM she would reduce bureaucracy and free up teachers to teach - or to spend time on preparation, but not on “filling in forms”. She also suggested there might be a case for some schools having an “in-house social worker” to free teachers up “just to teach”.

Ms Forbes said she would simplify the education system and empower teachers and headteachers. She said “review after review” had shown that it wasn’t the curriculum that was the problem but “the fact that we are asking our teachers to do a huge amount”. She would reduce the burden on teachers and empower schools by giving them control over their own budgets and staffing so they could “tailor” the teaching to the child.

Ms Forbes, who said her sister is a P1 teacher, also acknowledged that with one in four children living in poverty, some children are “arriving to learn who are too hungry to learn”. She pledged to tackle “the root causes of poverty”, which has been a refrain throughout her campaign.

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Mr Yousaf, who has positioned himself as the person to continue where Ms Sturgeon left off and “build on our government’s radical progressive agenda”, said some progress had been made in closing the gap “but we have to go much further”.

He added: “That’s why I would continue to invest in - in fact, expand - free school meals. That’s why I would expand breakfast clubs. That’s why I want to expand after-school clubs, but with a particular focus in those areas with the highest deprivation.”

He, like Ms Forbes, said he wanted to “eradicate poverty”, adding: “If we do that, that helps the educational life chances of every single child in Scotland.”

So to what extent do their priorities align with those of the profession?

Are the first minister candidates in tune with teachers?

We asked the leaders of Scotland’s teaching unions and school leaders’ organisations what their three priorities would be for the new FM.

This is what they told us:

Andrea Bradley, general secretary, EIS teaching union

1. Closing the attainment gap

“To close the attainment gap we have to eradicate poverty in Scotland, so the answers lie beyond the school gates. But we remain committed to doing all that we can. Reducing class sizes to 20 across all ages, stages and sectors could be transformational in reducing the impact of poverty - we also need significantly more investment in additional support needs.

“If we are going to reduce class sizes and augment [additional support needs] support, we will need more teachers, not fewer teachers as the latest census showed.

“The additional funding that has come via the Scottish Attainment Challenge has been welcome but that cannot be in lieu of investment in core provision. Long-term, sustainable funding of education is critical to the success of this mission.”

2. Tackling teacher workload by delivering the pledge to reduce class-contact time

“Twenty per cent of teachers report that they feel stressed at work all the time; 34 per cent say their stress at work is unmanageable; and only 18 per cent of teachers would recommend the profession to others, based on an EIS survey that received 16,500 responses. We cannot expect an exhausted teacher workforce to deliver on that mission to close the attainment gap - we need a large cohort of teachers whose morale is strong.

“There has to be intervention around teacher workload and wellbeing. The EIS ambition is that class-contact time should go to 20 hours per week but for the short and medium term we will settle for the reduction to 21 hours, as has been promised by the SNP. That extra one and a half hours has to go to teachers for additional marking time and preparation.”

3. Ensuring that education reform is meaningful

“There is a lot of good intention underpinning the education reform process that has been set in motion and we have a real opportunity to align learning, teaching and assessment with the founding principles of Curriculum for Excellence. So, with the Hayward review of assessment and qualifications, we need a carpe diem mindset in terms of the opportunities that presents, in order to move away from a scenario that places too much store on high-stakes, exam-based qualifications.

“And then the process of replacing and reforming Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority - we have to make sure that in the formation of the new agencies we have teacher voice and learner voice at the heart of their governance in order that we don’t make the same mistakes. It can’t just be a rebranding exercise.”

Greg Dempster, general secretary, primary school leaders’ body AHDS

1. Carrying out a review of school leader workload

“The AHDS workload survey tells us every year that school leaders’ workload keeps them away from the bread and butter of educational improvement. Not only that but the pressures and working hours are putting off the next generation of headteachers. This needs urgent attention to recruit and retain school leaders but also to enable Scottish education to flourish.”

2. Enhancing support for children with additional needs

“AHDS members support the presumption of mainstream education, but this comes with two caveats that are not currently being addressed. The first is that schools need more trained support assistants in classrooms to provide pupils with the support they need to remain in mainstream classes - this will also help teachers to progress learning for all their pupils. The second is that alternative provision for pupils, for whom mainstream schools are not appropriate, needs to be resourced and expanded.”

3. Introducing clarity and consistency in budget and staffing arrangements

“The variation in staffing arrangements across Scotland has developed over time in response to local pressures. The budgets available to school leaders also differ markedly. Work is required to examine and address budgetary and staffing variance.”

Jim Thewliss, general secretary, School Leaders Scotland

1. Introducing a national minimum funding formula for schools ( and 2. Introducing a national minimum staffing standard)

“SLS is fully committed to closing the poverty-related attainment gap. In achieving this we see the delivery of equity best achieved by empowering those who are directly engaged with the issue and at the point of delivery, but delivering equity is impossible in a country where there are 32 different staffing formulae and 32 variations on the funding which arrives in schools.”

3. Reviewing school leader pay

“A comprehensive review of the remuneration of school leaders with the aim of creating, at the least, parity with those in similar positions in other parts of the UK. There is a crisis in attracting and retaining school leaders and, in particular, headteachers. This has been long in the making and lies in the workload expectations imposed on school leaders and the persistent erosion of salary, and salary differentials.  

“We are not comparing school leaders’ salaries with the excesses of the English academy system but would wish any new first minister to review the current system and reward school leaders commensurately for the task which they perform.”

Seamus Searson, general secretary, Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association

1. Ending education cuts

“A fundamental investment programme is needed to ensure education is a priority, with a highly trained and valued secondary school workforce that includes professional support staff.”

2. Introducing more career progression routes for secondary teachers

“Address the need for a secondary teacher career structure that takes forward the aspirations of the Career Pathways report. Introduce lead teachers in every subject in every school. Acknowledge the need to reward teachers for taking on extra responsibilities that are necessary in managing a secondary school. An urgent review into the management structures in a secondary school that addresses the changing needs of the pupils.”

3. Tackling teacher workload and pupil behaviour

“Address teacher health and wellbeing and ensure all measures are in place to give teachers time to focus on teaching and learning. Reducing teacher workload and support teachers in dealing with poor pupil behaviour. Both are putting undue stress and pressure on teachers, which is driving teachers out of the profession.”

Mike Corbett, Scotland national official, NASUWT Scotland

1. Reducing teacher workload

“This has been our members’ number-one concern over the past several years. A swift resolution to the impasse over the proposed reduction in class-contact time would provide a clear indication that the new FM was serious about trying to address this issue.”

2. Addressing increasing levels of pupil abuse and aggression

“NASUWT had regularly highlighted concerns around pupil behaviour pre-pandemic, but feedback from members suggests that this is an issue which has become more acute than ever; whether it is increased levels of abuse and aggression or the apparent addiction of many pupils to their mobile phones. The new FM needs to be brave enough to acknowledge that there is a problem and then help schools and teachers to address it.”

3. Making teaching an attractive career

“As part of our Better Deal pay campaign, NASUWT regularly highlighted the worrying figures for teacher recruitment and our own survey evidence showing that many experienced teachers are seriously considering leaving the profession. Pay, workload and pupil behaviour are all factors in this. We need to ensure that teaching remains an attractive and rewarding profession or we simply will not have the numbers of teachers that we require.”