Royal Blind say there are now 4,735 schoolchildren in Scotland with visual impairments.
A charity is calling for urgent action to support record numbers of visually impaired children in Scotland’s schools.
Royal Blind said the number of schoolchildren with visual impairments has more than doubled over the last decade, from 2,005 in 2010 to 4,735 today.
Over the same period, there has been a fall in the number of teachers who provide vital support such as braille tuition and learning adaptation.
Royal Blind says it is concerned that specialist teachers in visual impairment in mainstream schools are facing unreasonable pressures, being asked to support more pupils with less time to do so.
The charity is now calling on local authorities and the Scottish Government to ensure the right support is in place for vision impaired pupils and their families in the future.
Mark O’Donnell, chief executive of Royal Blind, said: “Obviously everyone’s top priority just now is coronavirus, including protecting the more vulnerable such as those with disabilities including visual impairment.
“However, we must keep sight of the disadvantage these groups already faced before the pandemic, which may only get worse afterwards. We have never before had so many pupils with visual impairment in Scotland’s schools, and we are concerned that just when more support is required too often pupils aren’t getting the access they need to specialist teachers.
“Royal Blind is pleased to be working successfully with a number of local authorities to improve support for pupils, but across the country budgets are being cut for additional support needs in schools. This is not sustainable when there is already an attainment gap for blind and partially sighted pupils, leading to poorer chances for them in employment.”
Mr O’Donnell said more research was needed to discover why the number of children with visual impairments was rising, adding: “the trend is clear, meaning there are more pupils who need extra support.”
“Our highly specialist teachers in visual impairment do a great job, with no additional incentives provided for them to undertake their training,” he said.
“But there are fewer of them in mainstream schools at the very time when there are more pupils who need their support, and they are being asked to do more and more.
“If blind and partially sighted pupils are to have the support they need for fair chances in education we need to have a collective effort between government and local authorities to meet this challenge. We are keen to play our part as a charity in taking this vital work forward.”
