The Scottish Parliament election takes place tomorrow. On the last day of campaigning, we pick out some of the most eye-catching promises on education from each of the five parties with MSPs in the past parliament. We have also included links to the more detailed rundowns on their manifesto commitments that we published in April.

Also today, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, said it was “significant” that all the main parties had committed to recruiting thousands more teachers.

Scottish election 2021: Manifesto pledges on education

SNP (full manifesto rundown here)

• Spend £1 billion more in the next five-year parliament to “close the school attainment gap” and recruit 3,500 more teachers and classroom assistants, while reducing teachers’ weekly contact time by an hour and a half.
• Reform Scotland’s assessment and qualifications system so that it “does not inherently disadvantage those from more deprived backgrounds”.
• Give every child a device to get online, including a free internet connection “and the support to use it”.
• Establish a “national digital academy” so that students can study for Highers “at any time, any place, any age”.
• Provide free school breakfasts and lunches to every primary school pupil in Scotland throughout the year, and to all pupils in state-funded special schools. In the longer term, pilot free breakfasts in secondary schools with a view to universal free breakfasts in secondaries.

Conservatives (full manifesto rundown here)

• 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” to “hold local authorities to account for the standard of their schools” and “enforce the requirement for schools to be politically neutral”.

• Review “teacher training” and introduce a £550 million workforce strategy to recruit 3,000 more teachers during 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, and introduce a dedicated Stem teacher in every primary school.”

• A £35 million national tutoring programme “for children who need the most help to catch up”.

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

Labour (full manifesto rundown here)

• Increase teacher numbers by 3,000 over the course of the next parliament, with “a proportionate increase in support staff”.
• A personal tutoring programme to boost recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
• A “comprehensive review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)”, with a “key” focus on vocational education in schools.
• A “guaranteed completion opportunity” for every teacher in their induction (probation) year, “to ensure that they can gain registration”.
• An end to temporary contracts and zero-hour arrangements for supply teachers.

Greens (full manifesto rundown here)

• Recruit 5,500 more permanent teachers and reduce class sizes to a maximum of 20, with teachers’ class-contact time reduced to 20 hours per week.
• Replace inspections with peer review and self-evaluation overseen by the Regional Improvement Collaboratives, ending the routine use of national inspections.
• Raise the school starting age to 7 and introduce a kindergarten stage for children aged 3-6, and end the routine use of homework in primary schools.
• End P1-S3 Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs), “which result in unnecessary stress and pressure for pupils and staff”, and bring back the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) to monitor national performance.
• Reduce the role of exams and “expand continuous assessment of coursework”.

Liberal Democrats (full manifesto rundown here)

• Review of workloads and career opportunities for teachers, and a minimum starting salary of £30,000 from probationer level.
• Play-based education until age 7, “based on the Nordic model” and starting with “a series of voluntary pilots” in existing buildings, and the legal right to defer when a child starts primary school,.
• Every qualified teacher guaranteed a job, to cut class sizes, provide pupils with more one-on-one help and allow a greater focus on additional support needs (ASN) in the classroom.
• An “immediate term-time expansion of outdoor learning and increased provision of residential outdoor education”.
• A new programme of supported S4-S6 study (optional for both staff and students), “guided by the judgement of class teachers” and to include “a financial bonus for those who lead them”.

Of the other parties contesting tomorrow’s Holyrood election, polling suggests that Alba is the most likely to have any MSPs in the next parliament, so Tes Scotland also looked at its manifesto promises on education.

More teachers ‘central to Covid education recovery’

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said today that it was “significant” that all the main parties had committed to recruiting thousands more teachers.

The EIS said it wanted the focus in the coming years to be on “supporting an education-led [Covid] recovery that will benefit the whole of Scotland”.

Mr Flanagan added: “Absolutely central to this is the need to employ more teachers in our schools to support young people in education recovery.”

He stated: “The Covid pandemic has had a profound impact on the educational experience of many young people across the country, with the most damaging negative impact often being experienced by those already facing significant disadvantage.

“Supporting an education-led recovery to allow all young people a fair opportunity to achieve their full potential must be the top priority for the next Scottish Parliament.”

Mr Flanagan said it was “significant, and also welcome, that there appears to be consensus between Scotland’s main political parties on the need to employ more teachers to support education recovery”.

He added: “Given the agreement, across the political spectrum, of the importance of employing more teachers, we will expect the Scottish Parliament to work on a collaborative basis to deliver this commitment.”

Mr Flanagan also stressed that the next Scottish government must work with the local authorities’ body Cosla to ensure more teachers are taken on, since councils employ teachers.

“While the Scottish Parliament and Scottish government set national policy on education, it is local authorities who employ teachers,” Mr Flanagan said.

“In the past, we have seen frustrating examples of national commitments on teacher recruitment not being delivered in some parts of the country.”