Our latest opinion is written by Ross Greer, Green MSP for the West of Scotland region.

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Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you the biggest problems facing Scottish education are staff and resource cuts.

Between 2011 and 2016 spending per pupil dropped by almost 10p in the pound in secondary schools, more than 4,000 teachers have been lost since 2007 and since 2010 hundreds of specialists supporting children with additional needs have gone.

The solution is to reverse these cuts and get money back in to our schools. Teachers, parents and professional bodies all agree. It’s why the Greens negotiated £160 million for local services in this year’s budget. The problem is, the SNP see things differently.

The Scottish Government is pressing ahead with plans not to get teachers back in the classroom but to change the governance structures of Scottish education.

In short, they will give overworked and under-resourced head teachers far more work and responsibility at the same time as removing power from our elected councils and putting it in the hands of new regional bodies which they will create and which will be accountable to central government.

This is a power grab which will not improve Scottish education.

It is telling that only the Conservatives have any enthusiasm for the SNP’s proposals.

Beyond the political opposition of the Greens, Labour and Liberals, the government’s own documents acknowledged widespread support for the current structures and strong opposition to their plans, including from teachers, parents, councils and agencies.

In short, almost everyone involved in education thinks this is a bad idea, so why do the SNP disagree?

As the Greens’ education spokesperson I have listened to teachers, parents, and pupils about what Scottish education needs. Unfortunately, it isn’t what the SNP are delivering.

Their introduction of standardised testing from the age of six goes against evidence from across the world and just adds more stress to teachers and pupils.

Their cuts to local councils, who actually deliver education, have left schools understaffed and under resourced, the result being shocking workload pressures on remaining staff and thousands of teachers now considering leaving the profession.

And all of these factors are now contributing to a serious lack of new teachers entering the profession.

The Greens are ready to work with the government if they get their act together and start listening to teachers and pupils before Conservative politicians.