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Greens pledge 360 teachers in Edinburgh to help schools recovery

More funding to reduce teacher workload in Greens Holyrood manifesto

The Scottish Greens have unveiled plans to recruit an additional 360 teachers in Edinburgh to help schools recover from the coronavirus pandemic. This pledge comes as part of a proposal to recruit 5,500 teachers across Scotland over the next few years.

The party’s manifesto, which is set to be launched later this month, will make the pledge to help reduce class sizes and teacher workload, which unions have warned has become unmanageable during the last five years.

This announcement follows the Greens’ work to make schools safer during the pandemic. Last year Parliament backed a package of ‘Safer Schools’ proposals by Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer, which led to the introduction of regular voluntary COVID testing both school staff and senior pupils as well as £45 million for the recruitment of 2,000 additional teachers or other key staff during the pandemic. £2.683m of the funds secured by the Greens went to schools in Edinburgh. [1]

Commenting, Scottish Greens Candidate for Lothian, Alison Johnstone said:

To ensure young people in Scotland get the best possible education, we need to ensure teachers in Edinburgh have the time and resources they need. That’s why the Scottish Greens are committing to the recruitment of 360 additional teachers for local schools. Even before the pandemic teacher workload levels in Scotland were amongst the highest in Europe. We urgently need more teachers in the classroom to spread that workload, giving them more time to prepare and to teach, rather than get bogged down in paperwork and administration.

Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Greens have worked hard for school staff and pupils. Our plans to get more staff into our schools to cover for COVID related absences and manage the huge increase in workload were passed by parliament, and so too were our calls for regular testing, to ensure the return of schools was as safe as possible.

A green recovery for our young people means giving them a broad, empowering education delivered by motivated teachers. Our future depends on it.


  1. Scottish Parliament backs call for extra 2,000 teachers (Tes)