Scotland’s biggest teachers’ union is calling on first minister Humza Yousaf to take action over the “lack of job security” for teachers that is leaving many in “a constant state of limbo”.
The EIS says Scottish teachers in recent years have been appointed on short-term, temporary contracts.
The union warns that, as a result, a growing number of teachers are leaving the profession to find job security elsewhere, adding that this has had “serious implications for the Scottish educational system”.
It is calling for additional funding that is “effectively ringfenced for the recruitment of additional permanently employed teachers”, as well as improved workforce planning.
In an interview with Tes Scotland earlier this month, education secretary Jenny Gilruth - herself a former teacher - said the fact that so many teachers were struggling to secure permanent contracts made her feel “pretty uncomfortable”.
The latest figures show that just one in five primary teachers who completed their probation in 2021-22 had a permanent job at the start of the following school year in September.
Ms Gilruth said that, with councils’ umbrella body Cosla, she wanted to “unpack” the question of whether it was time to “guarantee a certain number of years’ employment” beyond the probationary year.
In a letter to Mr Yousaf, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said that “thousands of teachers in Scotland” were suffering because of “precarity of employment”, leaving their “professional and personal lives…in turmoil”.
Ms Bradley said that many had joined the profession in response to the government’s teacher recruitment campaigns of 2016 and 2017, but, having undertaken initial teacher education courses “in good faith”, “the long-term staffing strategy for education has not served them well” and now many find themselves unable to pay their bills or plan for the future.
She wrote: “They tell of significant levels of stress and anxiety. Many have children to look after, some are single parents and several of the members who have been in touch to seek the help of the EIS are pregnant. An expectant mother should not be in the unhealthy position of literally fearing for her future and that of her soon-to-be-born child.”
Teacher job insecurity
Ms Bradley said she had raised the issue with the first minister in early June but that over the summer “more and more members” had contacted the EIS “in desperation at the prospect of no work when the new school session begins”.
Ms Bradley said the years of study these newly and recently qualified teachers had undertaken shows they are committed to children, young people and to their profession.
She said their commitment often comes with “significant personal sacrifice and expense; through the successful completion of a rigorous probationary year and through the achievement of an exacting suite of professional standards”.
The letter added that the situation has resulted in many “simply leaving or planning to leave the teaching profession”. Ms Bradley also raised fears about the impact on the quality of education for children, “particularly as our education system struggles to recover from the pandemic, and our most socioeconomically disadvantaged children and young people [suffer] from blow after blow of Westminster-driven austerity”.
She called on Mr Yousaf to “give this matter urgent consideration and provide additional funding to local authorities that is effectively ringfenced for the recruitment of additional permanently employed teachers”, and to look “carefully at teacher workforce planning for the years ahead to ensure stability and sufficiency of teacher staffing”.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said that while teachers are employed by local authorities and not the government, it is “taking strong action to protect increased teacher numbers” and is offering councils an additional £145.5 million in the 2023 budget.
They added: “Over the past 10 years the number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at over 80 per cent, and since December 2014 the number of school teachers in post has increased by 8 per cent, from 49,521 to 53,459 in December 2022.”
The spokesperson said: “The Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of education bodies, is looking at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.
“This includes, for example, geographical and subject-specific issues, as well as how we can increase diversity within the profession and improve support for early career teachers.
“More broadly, the education secretary has discussed the national picture on recruitment with Cosla, and she looks forward to working with our councils on the issue of recruitment and retention - noting that it is they who employ our teachers and not the Scottish government.”
