EDUCATION experts have stressed that debates over the state of education in Scotland must account for the impact of poverty on children’s learning.
It was reported this month that Glasgow secondary schools are inheriting numeracy and literacy problems developed in primary education.
Primary teachers have been sent to 14 of the city’s 32 secondary schools to help teach S1 pupils basic literacy and numeracy already expected to have been achieved.
In Glasgow, 68% of P1, P4 and P7 pupils were achieving the expected levels of literacy in 2024/25 – the joint lowest rate in Scotland. This leaves nearly a third of students falling behind.
PISA results have also fuelled debate in recent weeks around the performance of Scotland’s education system.
While the results show that Scotland’s scores for maths and reading have decreased, they remain above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average.
Taking that factor into account alongside the difference in scores on previous years, a complex picture is painted of the Scottish education system.
Anne Keenan, assistant general secretary of education and equality at the Educational Institute of Scotland, echoed this.
She told the Sunday National: “The factors are myriad and complex.
“I don’t think we can look at the results without considering the context in which young children are learning and their socioeconomic situation.
“One in four children in Scotland live in relative poverty.”
In contrast to East Renfrewshire, a region with the lowest child poverty rates sitting at 12%, a third of children in Glasgow remain living in poverty.
East Renfrewshire outperforms Scotland’s national average for attainment while Glasgow consistently sits below average.
Experts have drawn links between educational performance being directly impacted by socioeconomical factors such as child poverty and area deprivation.
The Pupil Equity Fund, Scottish Child Payment and free school meals were implemented to help relieve the pressure on struggling households and reduce the detrimental impact of childhood poverty on later educational performance.
Keenan stressed a need to go even further, saying that “there needs to be greater investment in core education”, emphasising the need for consistent funding that can be relied on and giving teachers the resources to support all pupils.
“43% of children in our schools require additional support,” she said.
“With class sizes reaching 33 pupils per teacher, that means more than 14 individuals need extra attention. Staff can’t build those one-on-one relationships required to aid young children with learning.
“These additional support needs can be dyslexia, neurodivergence and so on but crucially there is now 20% fewer additional needs support teachers so with less specialists available than there was in 2010, there is more difficulty dealing with large classroom sizes.”
A survey conducted by EIS earlier this year asked teachers if they can always access support at the point of need and found that just over 1% can do so.
In recent years, councils facing major funding cutbacks have reduced the number of teachers in school, with primary school teachers now often struggling to find permanent work contracts.
Additionally, over the past decade, the number of nursery teachers has approximately reduced by half.
At the same time, spending on schools across Scotland has increased by more than £1 billion in real terms.
Those calling for reform have suggested that the Government should look to reprioritise the early years of education as this initial development shapes the trajectory of children’s educational performance.
An OECD study conducted in 2025 found that early childhood education care (ECEC) programmes helped establish foundational learning which gave children who had been enrolled in ECEC an advantage when they reached compulsory primary education.
Access to ECEC is a financial privilege that not all parents can afford, making the attainment gap between affluent and deprived families a continuous inequality.
The challenges tie back into the SNP’s focus on completely eradicating child poverty – with plans to reduce it below 10% by 2030/31.
In 2010, the Book Bug programme was introduced by the Scottish Book Trust, and it is funded by the Scottish Government.
Book Bug operates as an intervention and early prevention initiative focusing on language development.
Parents receive free book bags containing four books that are to engage children from birth to the start of P1.
Children that are surrounded by books and engaged with literacy from a young age are more likely to have better attainment later than kids who don’t receive the same encouragement.
However, the fear is that the effects of programmes like these cannot be sustained if, when children reach primary, there are shortages of staff and a lack of resources, meaning the progress is erased.
EIS launched a Stand Up for Quality Education campaign prior to elections this year outlining the necessary action to improve the conditions for teachers and therefore improve the learning experience for learners.
Keenan explained: “Our Stand Up for Quality Education campaign is based on what our members have told us and that is the need for increased funding for additional support for learning, that being for pupils with additional needs.
“Support for violent and distressed behaviour in classrooms and reducing the workload.
“Teachers are working an additional 11 hours over their contracted hours.”
Education Secretary Mairi McAllan has vowed curriculum reform and while more details are yet to be revealed, there could be hints towards the route of travel in the current debate over the state of education in Scotland.
Reform UK leader Malcolm Offord raised the PISA results at First Minister’s Questions a fortnight ago, saying: “This is disastrous for young people and embarrassing for the nation.”
First Minister John Swinney said he was “proud” of Scotland’s education system and that childcare and early learning is a core focus of resolving the current flaws.
