This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

"We will recruit at least 3,500 additional teachers and classroom assistants and reduce teachers' daily contact time by an hour and a half per week to give them the time they need to lift standards."

That, in black in white, was the promise made by the SNP in the run up to the 2021 Holyrood election.

The commitment couldn't have been clearer: a specific minimum increase in teacher numbers, and an explicit reduction in class contact time, all for the express purpose of giving teachers the necessary time and space to improve the quality of Scottish education.

Why did the party make such a promise? To be frank, after years of getting things wrong when it comes to education policy, this was one of those rare occasions when they actually got things right.

Teachers' 'contact time' refers to the number of hours they spend actually teaching classes during each working week. This is in contrast to what is sometimes called 'prep time', during which educators must review students' work, plan forthcoming classes, prepare differentiated materials for pupils with additional support needs, complete paperwork, attend meetings, arrange their own professional development, and more.

Cutting contact time might seem counter-intuitive, because surely we want teachers to spend as much time teaching as possible? In reality, things aren't that simple.

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