A leading sight-loss charity is calling for more specialist teachers as the number of pupils with visual impairment in Scotland has almost doubled in a decade.
According to Sight Scotland - which runs the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh - specialist teachers are “vital” if pupils with visual impairment are “to thrive and reach their full potential”.
However, the latest teacher census figures for 2021, published last month, show just 36 teachers report “visual impairment” as their main focus - or “subject taught”.
Meanwhile, the latest pupil census figures - also published last month - show the total number of pupils in Scotland with a visual impairment for 2021 was 4,930 - up from 2,593 in 2011, an increase of 90 per cent.
Research conducted by the University of Edinburgh in 2016 showed that there were only 94 qualified teachers of visually impaired children and young people (QTVIs) in Scotland and the median age of the teachers was 50.
Now, ahead of the local government elections in May, Sight Scotland is calling for councils to create better chances for blind and partially sighted young people by increasing the number of QTVIs and other specialist resources available to schools.
Craig Spalding, chief executive of Sight Scotland, says: “It’s vital that specialist teaching, including more QTVIs, is made available to all blind and partially sighted children and young people in Scotland.
“We are delighted to already have excellent working partnerships in Midlothian, East Lothian and Orkney, providing specialist teaching in education settings, and as flexible placements with the Royal Blind School, to blind and partially sighted pupils in those areas.
“By providing strategies, tools and understanding of vision impairment through specialist teaching, we create better opportunities for children and young people with vision impairment.
“Customised learning to enable access to the curriculum, in addition to the learning of daily living skills with specialist teachers, is essential to allow children and young people with vision impairment to thrive and reach their full potential.”
The charity’s outreach education services currently work in partnership with Midlothian Council, East Lothian Council and the Orkney Islands Council to provide specialist teaching and support for children and young people with vision impairment.
Samantha Gough is 18 and lives in Lasswade in Midlothian. She has been visually impaired from birth due to cerebral visual impairment (CVI) - a condition that means the eyes are healthy but the brain’s visual pathways do not work, resulting in sight loss.
For the last year, Samantha, who is now severely sight impaired, has had her schooling split between attendance at her mainstream school and the Royal Blind School, where she receives teaching and support from their specialist team, including QTVIs and habilitation specialists.
Samantha says this tailored specialist teaching has been “life-changing”.
She says she has had to “relearn how to live” and the specialist support from the Royal Blind School means she is learning to cook, go to the shops and use public transport independently.
She has also been able to rediscover her love of reading.
Samantha says: “At the Royal Blind School I’m learning how to use braille, which I love because I had lost the ability to read and write as my sight was taken away from me due to my condition, and reading and writing in braille has helped my reconnect with that. That feels amazing. I feel like I’ve found a part of myself again which I had lost when my sight deteriorated.”
The annual Scottish teacher census shows that in total 36 teachers listed “visual impairment” as their “main subject taught” in 2021 - in primary (1), secondary (5), special schools (2) and employed centrally by councils (28).
The figures do not include the specialist teachers employed in grant-aided schools, such the Royal Blind School.
Overall official figures show that the number of additional support needs teachers is falling - as the number of pupils who need more support is rising.
The number of ASN teachers in Scotland went from 3,384 in 2011, to 2,886 in 2021 - a drop of 15 per cent.
Over the same period, the number of pupils with additional support needs more than doubled, going from 98,493 in 2011 to 232,753 in 2021.
The high-level findings from the 2021 teacher and pupil census were published in December in the national statistics publication Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, with more detailed figures published last month.
Sight Scotland’s 2022 Scottish Local Authority Elections Manifesto can be read in full here.
