Maire Whitehead, head of St Mirin’s Primary in Glasgow and press officer for the Association of Head Teachers (Scotland), leads the list of educationists standing for SNP seats in the Scottish parliament.
But unlike Labour, the Nationalist hopefuls boast just one education convener, Janet Law of Perth and Kinross. She was formerly the party’s national spokesperson on education.
Other school-based candidates are John Lloyd, principal modern studies teacher at Inveralmond Community High in West Lothian; John Mowat, principal chemistry teacher at Kirkwall Grammar; Kaukab Stewart, senior teacher at Craigmillar Primary, Edinburgh; and Tom Johnstone, head of history at Cumbernauld High.
In the retired school lists are Alan Cameron, former head of Ellon Academy; and Colin Campbell, ex Glasgow secondary head and now the party’s defence spokesman.
The colleges and universities have furnished Greg McCarra of Napier University, Chrissie Bannerman of St Andrew’s College, and Sandy Stronach of The Robert Gordon University. Strathclyde University has produced two candidates: Jenny Herriot and Anne Lorne Gillies.
Two have an educational past - James Scott, who headed the then Scottish Education Department during the teachers’ dispute of the mid-1980s, and Ian Bayne, a former lecturer at Anniesland College, who was a vociferous campaigner against corporal punishment in schools.
