The Scottish Tories have vowed to recruit 3000 more teachers in Scotland if their party gains power in the next election - which could lead to around 316 more jobs in Glasgow schools.
The manifesto pledge was announced on Friday with Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, promising to pump £550 million into the sector in a bid to end "staff shortages".
Their paper also calls for a dedicated STEM teacher to be available in every Primary school to allow increased opportunities for career switchers to move into teaching.
Commenting on the pledge, Glasgow Conservative Group Leader, Councillor Thomas Kerr, said: “Under the SNP, teacher numbers have plummeted with one in thirty posts gone since 2007.
“Our plans to recruit 3,000 teachers would entirely remove this shortfall. For Glasgow, this could mean an additional 316 teachers.
“We have spent the last six years dividing our country. Let’s now come together to spend the next six years on rebuilding Scotland and restoring excellence in our schools.”
Glasgow Conservative Education Spokesperson, Councillor Euan Blockley, said: “I’m delighted to see the release of this detailed policy paper outlining how the Scottish Conservatives plan to revitalise our flagging education system.
“Five years ago Nicola Sturgeon said education would be her number one priority, but in her most recent Programme for Government she ditched her promise of a new flagship Education Bill in favour of another unwanted and divisive independence referendum.
“Despite promising to maintain teacher numbers, the truth is that under the SNP the number of teachers in Scottish schools has fallen by almost 3000.
"We have a fully costed plan to reverse that decline, halt the diminishment of our educational standards, and give schools access to a new national tutoring programme to help give disadvantaged kids the support they so desperately need after the disruption of Covid-19."
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Scottish Government figures show in 2007, the year the SNP came to power, there were 55,089 full-time equivalent teachers.
By 2014 this had fallen to 50,814 but the most recent statistics, published in 2019, show a rise to 52,247.
The figures include school-based teachers, those categorised as centrally-employed and early learning and childcare teachers.
In July the Scottish Government announced funding for hiring 1,400 additional teachers but last month the EIS teaching union said an extra 3,500 would be needed in Scotland to allow for physical distancing.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Teacher numbers are the highest in a decade with the number of primary teachers the highest since 1980.
“We have provided £80 million to local authorities, enough to recruit around 1,400 additional teachers and 200 support staff, in order to bring much-needed resilience to the education system and to compensate for any loss of learning suffered by children and young people during lockdown.
“Local authorities are still working through their recruitment processes, and current estimates suggest that an additional 1,118 teachers have already been recruited, with plans in place to recruit another 250.”
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