THE numbers of teachers funded through the Scottish Government’s £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund has more than quadrupled.

The fund is designed to be targeted at action to close the poverty-related attainment gap.

In 2017, it directly paid for 666 teachers across nearly all local authority areas – an increase of 316 per cent compared to the year before.

Deputy First Minister and education secretary John Swinney said: “The Attainment Scotland Fund, including £120m Pupil Equity Funding, has been established to tackle the poverty related attainment gap. The funding is targeted to authorities and schools with high levels of deprivation, and to all schools with pupils living in families affected by poverty to help them fund additional activity to support all pupils in their area to reach their full potential.

“It’s great to see so many more schools using this money to invest in extra teachers and other specialist staff to improve literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

“This was the original intention of attainment funding when the scheme was set up – given the absolutely central role of teachers in supporting children’s learning.

“In the many schools I have visited up and down the country, I have seen for myself the positive difference this is making.”