Education cuts in Scotland 'will see class sizes increased and subjects removed'

In a grim assessment, he said staff wanted to promote aspiration in pupils but are now in the position of "managing expectations".

Mr Thewliss made the comments following the publication of the draft Scottish Budget on Thursday. Deputy First Minister John Swinney, the acting Finance Secretary, admitted he had set out “a pretty bleak picture” to MSPs as he published the tax and spending plans.

Cosla, the council body, had asked for £1 billion to address multiple challenges, but said the cash allocated for 2023/24 amounts to an uplift of just £71 million once policy commitments are taken into account.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Show, Mr Thewliss said: "There have been year-on-year cuts within the education budget over the past, certainly 10 years, perhaps even longer than that.

"We're now at a stage where we really have a service where if you start to cut any more, you're cutting into the basic function of the service, which essentially...is the number of teachers in front of young people within schools."

He added: "What we've experienced at the moment is that vacancies which are already identified within schools – head teachers have been told these are not going to be filled, we'll start to manage the service to reduce the number of teachers within local authorities.

"In terms of impact on young people, the cuts running up until now to an extent didn't have a direct impact on young people, but it is now starting to bite in the school and in the classroom."

Asked how pupils will experience this, he said: "Things like class sizes starting to increase, certain subjects within the curriculum starting to be removed because they are deemed as non-viable. That's the experience that we're hearing from members across the country."

Mr Thewliss said schools have already been working together to share classes in subjects such as Higher modern languages. He said there is now "even greater pressure" on these subjects.

He added: "We're very much in the business of promoting aspiration within young people. We have bought entirely into the whole notion of young people having the best educational experience and the best life chances that they can have.

"We're now in the position...of managing expectations to a degree, and I have no idea where we're going to move with this, but it's becoming much, much more challenging in managing those expectations at the same time as promoting aspiration."

Mr Thewliss called on ministers and council leaders to work with schools, and insisted school leaders will continue to do the "very best" they can.

On Thursday, Mr Swinney announced people earning more than £43,662 will pay more in tax next year as laid out the Scottish Government’s plans, which had a focus on the NHS and social security.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “I set out, frankly, a pretty bleak picture to Parliament on Thursday. It was an explanation of the very real difficulties we find ourselves in as a consequence of some of the global issues which we often feel are a long way away from us.

“But on this occasion the war in Ukraine has brought energy and price inflation right to the heart of our economy and public services – compounded by some of the significant strategic mistakes that have been made in the United Kingdom around Brexit and the mini-budget in early September.”

He added: “I think anyone observing my budget statement on Thursday would recognise that I gave a pretty candid, open explanation of the scale of difficulty that we face.”

Mr Swinney insisted Scotland spends more per capita on education than south of the border.