There seems little logic in Scotland’s teacher numbers

If you look at what school subjects are losing the most teachers, can be hard to infer a logical strategy for teaching in Scotland. The Herald today is reporting that Scotland has lost almost half of its French and German teachers since 2008.

There has been a long-standing British cynicism about foreign languages in a nation that believes it has 'the world's reserve language' and so it would appear to be a (bad) explanation for why we are neglecting it. It is when you look at the other subjects which have suffered that things get murkier.

Because over the same period (since 2008) Mathematics teacher numbers have dropped by 12 per cent, Technical Education by 11 per cent, Physics by eight per cent and Home Economics by 15 per cent.

Again, this seems strange. Most countries are prioritising STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) given their significance to the modern economy. And for a lot of observers (Common Weal very much included), learning food preparation in an era of Ultra Processed Foods should also be a rapidly-expanding priority.

But it is when it comes to computing that this all makes the least sense. It is hard to think of a logical reason that any nation in the 21st century would be de-prioritising computing teaching, and yet that is something of an understatement of what has happened in Scotland.

Since 2008 the number of computer teachers in Scotland has fallen by nearly a third (28 per cent). This is a pretty devastating loss and it is very hard to see how this makes sense given the importance of computing to the modern economy.

By far the biggest increase over this period is 'pastoral education' – knows as Personal and Social Education or PSE. With a 98 per cent increase since 2008, numbers of pastoral educators in Scotland have doubled.

It is worth summarising this as it is; over the last 20 years Scotland has deprioritised STEM subjects, languages, computing and home economics and instead rapidly expanded pastoral education. This demonstrates a shift towards what critics (and some advocates) call 'therapeutic education', the concept of seeing education as a form of therapy.

There are strong criticisms of therapeutic education which have grown and it is certainly the case that most pastoral care practitioners identify small-group settings as most effective, not full classrooms. It is also unclear what impact this rise in PSE has had – the Scottish Government's review is very vague on outcome measures and what it has achieved.

And it is hard to argue that this because Scotland is making the pastoral support of pupils a particular priority because over the last ten years it has cut Additional Support Needs teachers by just under 20 per cent. That would be bad enough if it wasn't for the fact that over the last two decades the proportion of pupils identified as having additional support needs rose from one in 20 to half.

This highlights another important problem; therapeutic education certainly isn't counteracting the effects of the additional stressors society is placing on children. Doubling pastoral education yet seeing a ten-fold increase in pupils with additional support needs raises significant questions.

Common Weal has pushed the concept of the Curriculum for Wellbeing, but it very specifically does not mean 'the old curriculum with more PSE'. In fact there is reason to fear that PSE is driven more by political box-ticking than real child support – the question it best appears to answer is 'politicians, what are you doing about racism/misogyny/radicalisation etc.'.

Meanwhile a therapeutic education will not improve child mental health if it is a substitute for action on the social factors which are leading to mental health problems and it will not solve child anxiety if it is treated as a second-tier add-on to an excessively exam-orientated schools process (see our report Saving Childhood).

But nor will it prepare children for a life of 'wellbeing' if it does not provide them the knowledge to help them best deal with the world they will live in. That world is becoming more interconnected and less English language dominated – 2020 was the first time the top selling artists did not sing in English (South Korean band BTS) and in four of the last five years the most streamed artist did not sing in English (Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny who sings in Spanish).

Nor are STEM subjects becoming less relevant to our lives – China's success is build on a foundation of STEM education. Teaching children to cook has never been more urgent. Replacing language teaching, computing, home economics and STEM with pastoral education certainly speaks of current political priorities.

What it is much harder to argue is that it represents a clear or consistent national strategic approach to education.