There are now fewer than 100 days until the Scottish Parliament election on 7 May, and efforts are well underway to influence the education policy of whatever government is formed.
The EIS, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, has identified five key demands in its , and it is worth placing these in some context.
The manifesto, which factors in independent research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Scotland, identifies these priorities:
1. Reduce all class sizes to a maximum of 20 pupils
Smaller class sizes have long been an aspiration of the EIS - and, in the distant past, the same was true of the current party of power.
The SNP promised in its 2007 Scottish Parliament election manifesto to reduce class sizes to 18 in early primary, but this became a milestone during its first years in power. The policy was never realised and was gradually watered down; P1 class sizes were eventually capped at 25 and the emphasis on reducing class sizes disappeared altogether from SNP manifestoes.
In January 2025, however, first minister John Swinney seemed willing to embrace the idea of smaller class sizes once again. He said he wanted all children to benefit from smaller class sizes, not just those in advantaged communities, as he set out his plans for eradicating child poverty.
As a former education secretary, he will know full well that, when it comes to class sizes, the EIS is unlikely to ever forget.
2. Reduce weekly class-contact time to maximum of 20 hours
The Scottish government is feeling the pressure after failing so far to deliver on a 2021 manifesto promise to reduce teachers’ weekly class-contact time from 22.5 to 21 hours.
Now, with industrial action still possible over that pledge, the EIS has set ambitions ever higher: it wants teachers’ class time capped at 20 hours.
3. Restore number of early years teachers to at least 2012 levels
Early years has been a big focus for the government, given its ambitious increases in funded hours.
At the same time, however, there has been a sharp fall in nursery teachers over many years, with unions saying that Scotland fares badly in when it comes to this part of the education workforce.
Now the EIS wants the number of early years teachers registered by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) to return at least to 2012 levels, but ideally to 2007 levels.
The union finds that, in 2012, the ratio of registered children per full-time equivalent GTCS-registered teacher stood at 67:1; by 2024, it had risen to 122:1. That marks an even bigger change since 2007, when it was 63:1.
There were 1,689 pre-school teachers in 2007; the for 2025 show that there are now 696 pre-school teachers.
4. Ensure ASN staffing and resources meet legal requirements
In the words of the EIS, it is essential to “put in place the requisite additional staffing and resources to fully implement in practice the relevant legal duties and commitments for all pupils with additional support needs” (ASN).
This comes after a briefing paper released by the union in December highlighted the “far-reaching consequences” of the fast-rising number of pupils with ASN in Scotland’s schools.
The number of pupils with ASN has grown from 5.3 per cent of the population in schools in 2007 to 43 per cent in 2025, a 710 per cent increase.
In December, the union’s general secretary, Andrea Bradley, said: “This has most definitely not been matched with a similar increase in the resources available to support young people with ASN.
“In reality, despite the huge increase in the number of young people with ASN, we now have 20 per cent fewer specialist ASN staff working in our schools than we did in 2010 [down from 3,524 to 2,837].”
5. Free school meals for all pupils
The Scottish government finally confirmed in 2024 that its aim to make free school meals available to all primary school pupils would, in fact, go no further than P5.
The EIS, however, has ambitions well beyond primary schools - it wants free school meals for all pupils, all the way through to the end of secondary school.
The union’s manifesto states: “Hunger and food insecurity...contribute to the poverty-related achievement and attainment gap, which evidence shows, can have lifelong negative consequences for the young people who are on the wrong side of the gap.”
Predicted cost
Of course, there would be substantial costs involved in making all these measures a reality. The EIS and IPPR, however, predict that there would ultimately be profound net benefits.
In its analysis for the union, the IPPR states: “Using the cost assumptions detailed in [its report], our central estimate for delivering the full policy package is an annual cost of £860 million in 2030, with our high and low estimates being £1.1 billion and £650 million respectively.”
The EIS’ Andrea Bradley said of the manifesto: “There are, of course, costs involved in properly funding education, but this should be seen as an investment in our young people and in the future of our country and our society.
“Based on the independent research by IPPR Scotland, the view of the EIS is that these costs are entirely manageable for a wealthy country such as Scotland - it will be a matter of political choice for the next Scottish government, no matter what its political hue, as to how it takes forward these challenges to properly invest in and support Scottish education.”
Dave Hawkey, IPPR senior research fellow, said: “The costs we have estimated for implementing these policies are not insignificant, but international evidence suggests it is highly plausible that these would be outweighed by the benefits.”
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