New First Minister John Swinney has been challenged to be “clear and straight” with the public on whether the Scottish Government will stick to a commitment he made to increase teacher numbers.
When Mr Swinney served as education secretary in 2021, the SNP pledged to increase the number of teachers in classrooms by 3,500 over the current five-year parliamentary term.
With teacher numbers having fallen and amid concerns that Scotland’s largest local authority, Glasgow City Council, could cut hundreds of teaching posts, he was pressed on the issue in his debut session of First Minister’s Questions since succeeding Humza Yousaf earlier this week.
While Mr Swinney said he wants to make sure Scotland has a “well supported and substantial” number of teachers, he added: “I have to live in the real world of the public finances available to me.”
Mr Swinney, who was only officially sworn in as Scotland’s seventh First Minister on Wednesday, vowed: “I am going to be straight with the public of Scotland, I am going to tell them it the way it is.
“I am going to be clear, we are under enormous financial pressure and my Government is going to have to come to Parliament with information about the challenges we face in the public finances, and we will be doing that in due course.
“I’ve only been the First Minister for 48 hours, not even 48 hours.
“But we will be coming to Parliament to be straight about the challenges we face.”
Mr Swinney went on to say that teacher numbers had risen while he was education secretary, but Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told him: “We have 250 fewer teachers in Scotland in just the last two years.”
Mr Ross challenged Mr Swinney four times to say if he is still committed to the pledge to increase teacher numbers by 3,500.
The Tory leader asked him: “Will he, as First Minister, commit to the promise he made the people of Scotland to increase teacher numbers by 3,500?”
He urged Mr Swinney to be “clear and straight with this Parliament and just answer”.
Mr Swinney stressed the commitment on teacher numbers had been “given in good faith” as he insisted he wants his Government to “work with our local authority partners to deliver on those commitments”.
But he added: “The approach that we take is hugely dependent on the resources that we have available.”
He said the public finances had “deteriorated because of the effect of austerity, because of the cuts that have been made in public expenditure” and also because of “very significant” inflation.
While he said the Scottish Government will “take forward its programme within the resources that are available to us”, he added: “I have to make clear to people, to be straight with the public, which I will be, that public finances are under enormous pressure.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also pressed Mr Swinney on teacher numbers, asking the new First Minister if he will “step in and save the jobs” of the 172 teachers in Glasgow he said are being cut this year, along with an additional 450 over the next three years.
Mr Sarwar told MSPs: “John Swinney bears responsibility for the broken finances in our councils and the decimation of our education system.”
He added there is “clearly no answer for parents, pupils and teachers in Glasgow” from Mr Swinney, saying they got “just obfuscation from this First Minister”.
The First Minister stressed he will not be instructing local authorities what to do.
However Mr Swinney said he understands the “challenges that face Glasgow City Council” and he pledged to “engage constructively” with it and local government body Cosla.