22 February 2015
Under the SNP teacher numbers and college places have both fallen. Teacher numbers have been cut by 3,994, from 52,446 in 2007 to 48,452 last year, according to official statistics.
Education body Colleges Scotland said that there were 238,805 Scottish college students in the academic year 2012-13, down from 347,336 in 2009-10. Over the same period, the hours of learning delivered by colleges fell from 83.4 million to 73.7 million, while staff numbers dropped from 20,686 to 13,761, a cut of 6,925 teaching posts.