This week in Holyrood, Scottish Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr initiated a debate on ending violence in Scottish schools. This debate comes as a result of Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth’s decision to call an emergency summit on school violence. This is in response to the rising rates of violence and disruption within Scottish classrooms, as well as a feeling among teachers that education is “now subordinate to managing disruption”.
Kerr set out five key demands with regard to the summit. He asked that it met as soon as possible and that a statement be made in Parliament on its outcomes. In addition, he argued that an action plan to reduce school violence be ready by the start of the new school year and that this plan included measures to allow transparent reporting of school violence across the county, that it sought to raise attendance rates and reformed the exclusions procedure to focus on supporting students who need it. Finally, Kerr demanded funding to provide support to students who were the victims or perpetrators of violence.
During the debate, Scottish Conservative MSP for West Scotland, Pam Gosal provided insight into the reality of school violence under the current Scottish Government. Restating that there have been almost 75 thousand verbal or physical attacks since 2017, she noted that the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights reported that 61 per cent of schools did not report on bullying and equalities incidents, despite Government policy to the contrary. This under-reporting allows such incidents to continue unabated, with drastic mental health and educational consequences for those who are the victims of bullying.
Education has frequently been avoided as a discussion topic by the Scottish Government, which is aware of its long-standing failures in this area. However, the cross-party nature of this debate raises hopes that all parties will unite behind the Conservative-led efforts to eradicate violence from schools and centre the well-being of students in the education process once again.