The scale of Scotland’s school jobs crisis has been laid bare by statistics which show that recruitment is failing to keep pace with a surge in registered teachers.
Numbers of teachers soared by more than 3,000 last year to above 80,000 for the first time in at least six years but those in work has plateaued. In November The Times revealed that newly qualified teachers were abandoning the profession in droves because of a lack of jobs and a “toxic” mix of pupil behaviour, mounting work and low pay.
Permanent opportunities are plummeting, particularly in primary schools, where just one in five probationers got a permanent contract last year.
The SNP government has committed to cutting the time teachers spend in front of pupils to 21 hours per week. This can only be fulfilled by hiring more teachers, a challenge that would be made more difficult if the government bowed to union pressure to give current teachers a 10 per cent pay rise from an education budget that is forecast to decline in real terms in the years ahead.
The SNP manifesto for 2021 pledged to recruit at least 3,500 more teachers in five years, on top of the thousands of new hires in the pandemic. However, there was a decline in teachers in work last year. The number of full-time equivalent teachers dipped to 54,193 in the census of September 2022, a decrease of 92 on the previous year.
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The census confirms there are 2,680 more teachers than in 2017, with about two thirds hired in the Covid recruitment drive, but teacher registrations have increased even faster. There are now about 10 per cent more teachers on the General Teaching Council for Scotland register but 5 per cent more in work.
Unions are preparing another round of strikes, claiming teachers are “overworked, underpaid and undervalued”. The Educational Institute of Scotland claims teaching “has never been a highly paid profession” and schools “will have even greater recruitment and retention challenges” without a 10 per cent rise.
However, the surge in registrations indicates teaching is an attractive profession, with starting salaries outstripping 90 per cent of the population. The number leaving the profession has stayed stable, with about 3,600 dropping off the register in the past two years, in line with previous years apart from the height of the pandemic, when more than 4,000 registrations lapsed.
Covid prompted many workers to reassess their careers, particularly older workers and those with underlying health conditions.
New teachers have more than outstripped lapsed registrations leading to an overall rise in registered professionals but the SNP’s opponents say departures remain too high.
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Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Tory education spokesman, who obtained the figures, said: “It’s deeply worrying, but unsurprising, that so many teachers have let their registration lapse. Standards are slipping across the board, reforms have been botched, threats of violence against staff are spiralling out of control and too many newly qualified teachers can secure only supply posts.
“Shirley-Anne Somerville’s shambolic handling of the pay dispute will only have added to their disillusionment.”
Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary, said: “Neither teachers nor the public believe the claims that Scottish teachers are better paid than their counterparts in the UK and internationally. In England the top of the pay scale is higher than in Scotland, and 14 OECD countries sit above Scotland on the league table of teachers’ pay.”
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “Local authorities are responsible for teacher recruitment, and they have autonomy to provide incentives to attract teachers to their area.
“We will continue to do everything we can to help them maximise the number of teaching jobs, including permanent posts. In 2022-2023 we will provide councils with specific funding of £145.5 million per year to support the school workforce and help provide sustained employment to teachers.”
