The SNP’s track record on education can only be described as dismal.
Since the party came to power in 2007, they have cut 3,000 teachers from our schools and 1,000 classroom assistants, whilst the number of teachers in our pre-school sector has also dropped consistently since 2007.

The SNP have cut support for 16-18 year olds staying on in education and reduced the number of university places by 1,000.

Meanwhile, newly published official Scottish government figures show that nearly 170,000 Scottish pupils are being taught in school buildings that are unsuitable for the delivery of education. Almost one quarter of mainstream schools in Scotland, 600 primaries and secondaries, have a ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ suitability rating, with an additional 49 special schools falling into the same categories.

These ratings are given to schools that either show ‘major problems’ in terms of suitability, or are so bad that they no longer ‘support the delivery of services to children.’

The figures have added to growing criticism of the SNP over slow progress on the refurbishment and rebuilding of school buildings under the Scottish Futures Trust. The trust was set up to fund new public building projects, such as schools, but despite costing the taxpayer £1.4 million by the end of the last financial year, has failed to deliver any new schools to date.

Newly qualified teachers have also been treated shoddily by the SNP. 90 per cent of new teachers this year have no permanent job, with no choice but to rely on insecure supply work. Not only is this unfair on the teachers who have worked hard to enter a profession, only to have the rug pulled out from under them, it’s also unfair on our children, who face disruptions and inconsistency in their education.

We are all painfully aware that we are facing massive ConDem cuts which will have a knock on effect for the budget of the Scottish parliament, but what is so startling about the SNP’s failures on education, is that they have taken place over a period when the budget available to them was increasing.

Since the start of devolution, the Scottish budget has increased year on year. Taking inflation into account, the Scottish budget for 2010-11 is 60 per cent higher than that available to Donald Dewar in 1999-2000 and 104 per cent, or more than double, in cash terms.

This, then, is not a case of an under pressure administration, at the whim of external forces, forced into making tough decisions. How, then, can these failures be accounted for? Are the SNP incompetent when it comes to education, incompetent when it comes to managing a budget, or did they actively decide that education should not be a priority for Scotland? Education certainly hasn’t been a priority for the SNP.

The SNP have let down children, parents and teachers. They’ve let down the future of Scotland.