The levels of funding going into schools for teaching and learning is not enough to meet the growing challenges schools face. That was the main argument made by mid Scotland and Fife MSP Alex Rowley this week when he spoke in a debate in Parliament on the government draft budget.
Mr Rowley was also critical of Education Secretary John Swinney who has suggested the creation of new regional education Boards as a solution to increasing attainment in the schools.
The Scottish Labour Deputy Leader said; “John Swinney seems oblivious to what is staring him in the face – we need more financial resources going into support our children through teaching and learning. He can mess around with structures till Doomsday, he can pour out the rhetoric about empowering head teachers and parents, but the fact remains we need more money going into the class room to support teaching and learning.
He continued; “I know that Mr Swinney visits schools and while I do not know what teachers tell him, I too have visited many schools and asked teachers what would be their priorities and consistently they say to me we need more class room assistants, we need more support in the classroom with teaching and learning.
“So we need government that will listen a bit more and we can start that process by listening to what teachers have to say.
“The money being promised for schools in this budget is simply not enough. Today I call on the finance secretary to reintroduce a 50p top rate of income tax for the richest 1% in our society and put this money into the education of our nations young people”.
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