The Scottish Conservatives have today launched their manifesto for the 6 May Scottish Parliament election.

Scottish Parliament election 2021: The Conservatives’ pledges on education

Here are some of the Tories’ key manifesto commitments on education:

• Oppose any move to scrap exams for good “and support the continued use of exams as they are the best way to equitably assess the achievements of pupils”.

• “Establish a new independent school inspector”, who would “report directly to the Scottish Parliament” and “hold local authorities to account for the standard of their schools”, and would also “enforce the requirement for schools to be politically neutral”.

• Review the quality of “teacher training” and introduce a £550 million workforce strategy to recruit 3,000 more teachers over the course of the next Parliament, including support for Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) professionals to become teachers and a “rural teacher fund” to encourage teachers to work in rural areas.

• “Introduce a dedicated Stem teacher in every primary school.”

Scottish Parliament election 2021: SNP manifesto for education

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• A £120 million two-year ”catch-up premium” to help with the post-Covid recovery in schools.

• A £35 million national tutoring programme providing one-to-one or small-group tuition “for children who need the most help to catch up”.

• A £4 million ”transition fund” to support children starting primary or secondary school in 2021.

• Paid internships for every S4 pupil and Foundation Apprenticeships available in every school.

• A review of “the post-18 education landscape in Scotland” in order to “rebalance the relationship between academic and vocational education”.

• “Ensure initial teacher training fully prepares all teachers to identify and support children with conditions such as dyslexia and autism”.

• £8 million in extra training for school staff and “holistic support” from mental health charities, to help pupils cope with the mental health impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

• A “subject guarantee” that every student will be able to take at least seven subjects in S4.

• Ensure that music lessons “are available to all students free of charge”.

• Introduce “dedicated PSHE (personal, social and health education) teachers in all schools”.

• A new strategy to increase the number of students taking languages in the senior phase of secondary school.

• A “multi-year commitment to allocate £1 billion of attainment funding directly to all schools” over the next Parliament, based on deprivation levels, with “a menu of evidence-based interventions, including tutoring, for schools to inform how they choose to spend attainment funding in the way that works best for their local community”.

• A “fair funding formula” that would “pass increases to the Scottish government’s revenue budget on to councils” in order to “ensure adequate funding is available for schools in every part of Scotland”.

Watch @Douglas4Moray announce our plans to rebuild Scotland ??
Use your party list vote for the @ScotTories to stop the SNP, stop indyref2 and together we can secure Scotland’s recovery. https://t.co/hoc9BsDM3g

- Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) April 19, 2021

- Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) April 19, 2021

• Ensure every pupil is “learning in a suitable local school building by the end of the next Parliament”.

• Rejoin international studies such as Timss (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and Pirls (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study).

• New “regional taskforces” to “ensure the right skills are in place” in further education colleges.
• Free school breakfasts and lunches for all pupils in primary and special schools.
• All pupils to participate in at least one week of residential outdoor education in their time at school.

• The review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD) should be published “immediately after the election”.

• Free “wraparound “childcare for children in primaries 1-3 of up to five hours a week.

• All parents who defer their child starting primary school should, from August 2021 (earlier than the current plan for 2023), continue to receive funded childcare.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “We would invest £120 million this year into a ‘catch-up’ premium for every school child and set up a national tutoring programme for those children in most need of support.

“And over the Parliament, we will give £1 billion directly to schools for tackling the attainment gap.

“To end the SNP’s cuts to teacher numbers, we will recruit an additional 3,000 teachers.

“We would allow every primary school child a free school lunch and breakfast because - as the son of a school cook - I know the importance of nutritious meals to a child’s learning.

“And we would roll out ‘wraparound’ childcare, to allow kids to take part in exciting out-of-school activities and support their parents to keep a full-time job when their child starts school.”