Scottish election 2021: How do voters feel about education?
- Published
After a year of huge disruption in schools, colleges and universities across Scotland, education is high on the agenda in this week's election.
All the major parties have made manifesto promises offering extra funding and support for the country's education system.
While political leaders have offered schemes to support learners and teachers following the upheaval caused by the Covid pandemic, some voters have sought fundamental changes to how Scots learn.
The BBC spoke to five people from our voter panel whose experiences in education will influence their vote in Thursday's ballot.
Having been a secondary teacher for 10 years, Suzanne has experienced first hand the evolution of education during the pandemic.
The transition to online learning during the lockdowns was not as simple as some people assumed.
"For a lot of my students, school is a safe haven which provides stability," she said.
"I've always worked in areas with high levels of deprivation.
"We don't have the resources to tackle things the way we want to.
"My dad actually donated laptops and ICT equipment to our students. Although families may have at-home access to a device, it's often shared between several kids."
In this election Suzanne said she wished party leaders would listen to more teachers.
"A lot of us feel that decisions are made without consulting those who are working on the front line," she said.
"We have students with different learning difficulties, additional support needs, social and emotional behavioural needs - pupil support assistants are worth their weight in gold. If we could have smaller classes or to offer one-to-one sessions, students would be in a better place both mentally and emotionally."
She added: "Most teachers are bending over backwards. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of people retiring or leaving teaching this year."
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The past year has been difficult and different for students everywhere, but university student Alex has found benefits to home learning during the Covid pandemic.
"Even though university education is, thankfully, free in Scotland, it can still be really expensive, and really off-putting for people who come from poorer backgrounds," he said.
Alex feels strongly about student bursaries and living costs for young people from lower income families.
"I'm in Edinburgh, so if I was going in to uni every month, that's at least £50 on transport, potentially more if I wasn't actually living in the city I go to university in," he said.
Student bursaries are not weighted on location - all eligible students receive the same amount regardless of where they study - and Alex said he believed they should take account of living cost that students face in different cities, such as Edinburgh or Glasgow.
"You could potentially start looking at what schools and universities have done over the last year, and seeing how you could take that forward," he said. "So, making remote learning more of an opportunity."
The Scottish education system could also benefit from more teacher involvement in assessment, he said, and Scotland "could take some of what we've learned in the last year and keep it, rather than just going straight back to what we were doing before."
SCOTLAND'S ELECTION: THE BASICS
What's happening? On 6 May, people across Scotland will vote to elect 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The party that wins the most seats will form the government. Find out more here.
What powers do they have? MSPs pass laws on aspects of life in Scotland such as health, education and transport - and have some powers over tax and welfare benefits.
With two children in primary school, Sarah, like many parents this year, has juggled work and home learning.
"Teachers are absolutely brilliant at what they do, and have been amazing over this difficult period," said Sarah. However, she has concerns about the lack of inclusion and representation in Scotland's curriculum.
"While maybe only 2% of the population here are people of colour, it is kind of irrelevant. Scotland purports to be an inclusive country but unfortunately that hasn't always been my experience.
"I feel these attitudes are perpetuated by a gap in education."
Sarah believes that learning about other races, ethnicities, and religions is a "life skill" that needs to be built into the curriculum at a young age.
"By the time they're teenagers, it is too late," she said.
Sarah and a friend have collaborated with local schools to create lesson plans about the "remarkable" Petronella Hendrik, who lived in Burntisland as one of Scotland's last Black slaves.
"Our children are not consistently taught the truth behind colonialism, the empire or the trans-Atlantic slave trade," she said. "In learning about these topics, where appropriate, I think young people can begin to understand why there is still institutional racism in our society."
Ahead of the election, Sarah admitted she has not been "greatly inspired" by any of the parties.
"I despair slightly. I can't really see how things are going to get better," she said.
"I'm wondering how many of the decision makers have recently taught in a classroom. Stepping into other people's shoes is an incredibly important part of the process."
Former teacher Tommy had first-hand experience in the changes made to the Scottish education system over the past decade, but said he wanted the government to do more to close the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students, and to support teachers.
As a student teacher Tommy trained for the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, but it led to him leaving the profession after completing his probationary year.
His cohort at university started with 110 students, of which only about 50 graduated. He said he knew at least seven other people who had since left the profession.
"As a new teacher, it's very stressful and very difficult to get up to speed," he said. "And I think that's what leads to that high dropout rate.
"In my mind, the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence in 2010 was kind of the beginning of the decline within Scottish education.
"The fact that it was 'how you teach, not what you teach' meant that the amount of time that you spent as a teacher having to research and to decide what to teach for each stage and each part of the lesson was outrageous."
Paired with larger class sizes, and less classroom assistance, Tommy said he believed the new curriculum raised more issues than it fixed.
He said his hope was for more investment into education to help lower class sizes, provide more classroom assistants and better school infrastructure, and alleviate pressures on the teachers too.
After his sixth-year exams were cancelled in 2020, David felt "let down" by the assessment system and grading algorithm, which he believed did not give a true reflection of his capabilities.
He said: "Putting more trust in teachers would have been beneficial for many of us. Our teachers had worked with us for six years, but they weren't allowed to put their opinions into our grades - they had to be backed up with evidence."
Final exams should be paired with continuous testing, he said, which could be used if similar situations arise in the future.
"This approach could also relieve pressure felt by young people during end of year exams," he added.
Since leaving high school, David has done his first year of university completely online while also working on his family's farm.
"Nobody is sure what's going to happen with the future of the agricultural industry, so I felt that having a degree would make me more employable if I should need it in years to come," he said.
"Personally, I don't think I would have gone to university if I had to pay for it, unless I'd been confident I would use the degree after graduation to pay back what I'd spent on it."
What are the parties promising you?
Use our concise manifesto guide to compare where the parties stand on key issues like Covid-19, independence and the environment.
POLICIES: Who should I vote for?
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PODLITICAL: Updates from the campaign