Perhaps the English use of two levels of punishment was a factor. While in England the slipper (or gym shoe) was used for more minor offences, with the cane reserved for more serious breaches, while in Scotland the tawse was used for all manner of offences with the level of severity controlled by the weight of the application, type of tawse used or number of strokes given.
The only recorded evidence of the extent to which corporal punishment was administered in Scotland’s schools is when, for short periods, universities decided to carry out surveys to ascertain the extent to which the belt was being used in any given time period.