Primary school art and music 'gutted' by SNP, claims Labour
The party accused the SNP of ‘hollow rhetoric’
The number of art and music teachers in Scotland’s primary schools has plummeted by more than 70 per cent since 2008, figures show.
Scottish Labour accused the SNP of “hollow rhetoric” over the arts and insisted it must “stop making excuses and deliver the education system Scottish kids deserve”.
It follows a political row over the performance of Scotland’s schools in the wake of the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
It put English pupils ahead of their counterparts in Scotland in terms of standards in reading, maths and science.
SNP Education Secretary Mairi McAllan previously said Scotland’s curriculum “also looks at artistic expression, problem solving [and] moral education”.
Statistics show the number of dedicated primary school art teachers has dropped by 80 per cent since 2008, while there has been a 71 per cent drop in music teachers.
In the last decade, the number of primary school art and music teachers fell by 63 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.
Scottish Labour education spokesperson Katherine Sangster said: “These astounding figures show primary school art and music has been gutted by the SNP.
“Kids from every background deserve the chance to discover their talents and enjoy arts and music – not just those who can afford to pay for classes.
“The SNP has been talking about ‘artistic expression’ in a bid to distract from its failure to get the basics right in our schools, but even that is just hollow rhetoric.
“It’s time for the SNP to stop making excuses and deliver the education system Scottish kids deserve – from supporting the arts to improving attainment.”
There were 80 dedicated art and design teachers in Scotland’s primary schools in 2008, according to official statistics. This had fallen to 16 in 2025.
Meanwhile, the number of music teachers fell from a high of 108 in 2011 to just 29 last year.
Pisa is carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and looks at the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in countries across the world.
It showed maths attainment has fallen again to a new post-pandemic low in Scotland while performance in reading has dropped since 2022. However, pupils have shown an improvement in science, up eight points compared to 2022.
READ MORE: Mairi McAllan: 'Pisa score doesn't reflect Scottish education's success in artistic expression'
The changes are marginal, and so are not seen to be statistically significant. But the overall picture puts Scottish young people a year behind their English peers for maths and science.
Appearing before Holyrood’s education committee on Tuesday, Ms McAllan said: “If you think about Scotland’s education system in the context of Pisa, Pisa is particularly looking at reading, mathematics and science, which are very, very important in our system.
“But Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence also looks at artistic expression, problem solving, moral education, and I wouldn’t have one without the other, frankly.
“So I just want to draw on the evidence that we have to look sure that our education system is capable of both providing academic excellence as certain bodies will encourage us to do, but also produces well-rounded individuals who are ready and capable to be resilient in this world. So Pisa’s just one factor.”
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