Almost 1,000 Scottish primary schools not inspected in last ten years

New data has revealed that almost half of Scottish schools have not been inspected by education bosses in over a decade.

A Freedom of information request revealed around 1,200 institutions across primary and secondary level, plus independent schools and those designated for special education have not been inspected since at least 2012/13.

961 primary schools and 157 secondary schools were not visited by inspectors for at least 10 years according, with a further 40 special and 42 independent schools also not receiving inspections according to a Freedom of information request filed by STV.

The data also reported that just three educational institutions have received visits by regulators from Education Scotland since the “routine” inspection programme was restarted after the programme was paused in March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

New figures have shown that almost half of Scottish schools have not been inspected by education bosses in over a decade

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A Scottish Government spokesperson told STV: “School inspections increased in 2018-19 and would have increased further the following year had it not been for the pandemic.

“Inspections are not the only method of scrutiny – schools and local authorities also have responsibility for evaluating performance.”

Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary, Stephen Kerr MSP, said: “A robust and regular inspection programme is absolutely crucial in knowing how schools are performing and what they can do to improve.

“SNP ministers cannot hide behind the pandemic as an excuse for these figures given how longstanding a failure to carry out inspections has been going on for. This is just the latest example in a litany of failures by the SNP when it comes to our schools.”

He added: “Ministers must urgently commit resources to tackling this backlog.”