DOUGLAS Ross will today launch £550 million worth of proposals to boost teacher numbers by 3000 over the next parliament.

The Scottish Tory leader’s announcement will be a key manifesto pledge for the May election and suggests education will be a key battleground in the campaign. He is to set out the details this morning in an online event with parents and teachers.

The Tories say the 3000 extra teachers would be paid in part through Barnett consequentials from the UK Government’s “levelling up” agenda .

Nicola Sturgeon has said education would be her “number one” priority during the current parliamentary term but her government has faced a number of challenges in the area including a narrowing of subject choice and a decline in pupils’ attainment in some subjects.

“Over these last six years, Scotland has been stuck debating the same argument instead of building for the future,” Ross said.

“In spite of the First Minister’s infamous pledge to judge her on education, our schools are stuck down the list of SNP priorities.

“Before the pandemic, Scotland’s schools were struggling from the SNP cutting teacher numbers by nearly 3000. Multi-level teaching was rife and subject choice cuts were limiting pupils’ ambitions.

“Those avoidable tensions are now ramping up. There are not enough teachers to deliver smaller classes and meet the demands of absences related to Covid.”

He added: “Over the next parliament, our plans would deliver 3000 more teachers to restore local schools to where they once were.”

He said the focus of the next six years “must be schools, not separation.”

Polls suggest that the SNP are on course for a record fourth term in government after next May’s election and that a majority of Scots support independence.

The party is also forecast to win a record majority for the second time with more MSPs than under Alex Salmond’s leadership in 2011.