To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure adequate provision of teaching staff in secondary schools in Dundee. (S6O-04535)

The Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £186.5 million of increased funding this year as part of our agreement with local government to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels. There is an additional £28 million in the budget to provide for additional support for learning, which can be used flexibly by our councils to invest in extra teachers in secondary schools, including in Dundee. The overall number of teachers in Scotland’s classrooms has increased by more than 2,500 over the past decade as a result of direct Scottish Government investment.

The headteacher of St John’s high school in Dundee has written to parents to say that secondary 1 and 2 pupils will receive fewer maths lessons per week and that national 5 application of maths classes will see a qualified maths teacher only on a rotational basis. The responsibility for that mess lies with the Scottish National Party Government, which has slashed council budgets, presided over a decline in Scottish education and piled ever more responsibilities on to our teachers. In his letter, headteacher Seán Hagney apologises for the disruption to learning. Will the cabinet secretary join him in apologising?

Mr Marra highlights an issue that I note has received press coverage in today’s The Courier . I have asked my officials to engage substantively with Dundee City Council.

I remind Mr Marra of local authorities’ statutory responsibilities with regard to the delivery of education. As I intimated in my original response, Dundee City Council will receive an extra £5.1 million as a result of the Government’s investment through the budget, which will help the council to increase teacher numbers to alleviate the challenges that he rightly raises today.

It is thanks to that Scottish Government investment that we have the highest-paid classroom teachers, the lowest pupil to teacher ratio and the highest school spending per pupil across these islands. It remains deeply politically incoherent that Mr Marra and his party voted to abstain on further investment in Scotland’s classrooms, where we know and agree that it is needed most.