SNP councillors in Dundee are speaking out against their own party’s raid on education budgets, says Kezia Dugdale.
The Scottish Labour leader used First Minister’s Questions to confront Nicola Sturgeon on comments from Dundee City Council, which said cuts rather than the way schools are run are to blame for the challenges they face.
Ms Dugdale said it speaks volumes that her Nationalist colleagues have made such an intervention.
“The last two weeks have exposed a decade of failure under the SNP. Even SNP councillors are now speaking out,” she said.
“In Dundee they have said that the real problem in education is not who runs the school budget – it’s the fact that the budgets are being cut.”
She added: “Ten years of the SNP has led to falling standards, a shameful gap between the richest and the poorest children, and more than 4,000 fewer teachers. “
The comments were made in a council submission to the SNP Government’s review of the way schools and colleges are managed.
Asked about the impact of current education governance arrangements on ensuring “excellence and equity for all”, councillors said: “The real barriers have been imposed on councils over recent years following a series of past and present reduction to the budget.”
Ms Sturgeon hit back at FMQs saying: “We need to see increased investment in our schools.
“That’s what the SNP pledged to deliver when we won the election in May and that is exactly what (Finance Secretary) Derek Mackay’s budget will deliver this afternoon.”
She added there has been an increase in teacher numbers across Scotland, some of which came about directly from the Attainment Fund her government set up.
And she said there is evidence the attainment gap is closing – a key priority for the Scottish Government.
