The Scottish government and local authorities’ body Cosla have “missed opportunities and lost momentum” to address a crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers, NASUWT members will say today.
Teachers at the union’s annual Scotland conference in Aberdeen will argue that failure to fully implement recommendations from the 2019 Independent Panel on Career Pathways for Teachers missed an opportunity to create a welcome culture change in how teachers progress and advance their careers.
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “The Scottish government has talked tough this year about introducing financial sanctions on local authorities if they failed to maintain teacher-pupil ratios.
“But the reality is that the Scottish government’s persistent underfunding of education, along with the failure to tackle excessive teacher workload, serious violence and abuse from pupils and the real-terms erosion of salaries, has led to the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.”
The NASUWT cited official national figures showing that teacher numbers fell last year for the first time since 2016, and that almost 40 per cent of places on the most popular route into secondary teaching were unfilled, with well over half of places vacant in subjects such as maths, science and computing.
Schools ‘will find teacher recruitment even tougher’
Dr Roach said: “Ministers have failed to take the opportunity to put in place the positive and progressive recommendations from the independent panel, which, if implemented fully, would have provided a wider range of pathways for teachers to develop their careers, making a job in teaching more attractive and sustainable for both new recruits and experienced teachers.
“Without a recommitment from government and employers to these principles, schools are going to find it even tougher to recruit and retain the teachers needed to maintain our children’s education.”
Mike Corbett, NASUWT national official for Scotland, said: “The current crisis in teacher recruitment and retention is the result of a short-sighted and short-termist approach to securing the supply of teachers.
“The latest figures from the Scottish government indicate that just one in 32 local authorities successfully offered more permanent contracts than temporary placements to post-probation teachers last year.”
He added: “This is a failure to invest in the future of the profession.
“The impact of insecure employment, spiralling workloads and declining working conditions are playing out in our schools every day as they find it harder and harder to fill vacancies. Ultimately, it is pupils who are paying the price, and that cost will only get bigger unless ministers and employers show some ambition for our education system.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said ministers were sure that the NASUWT “would acknowledge that Scotland has the highest teacher-per-pupil ratio compared to any other part of the UK”.
They pointed out that education spend per pupil is higher than in England and Wales: “This means that in 2022-23, the Scottish government spent over £8,500 per pupil, over 18 per cent or £1,300 higher than spending in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.”
They also said ministers were “committed” to recruiting more teachers and support staff: “Retention of teachers is absolutely key and undoubtedly the historic pay settlement reached earlier this year will go some way to achieving that aspiration.”
Classroom teachers on the main-grade scale in Scotland are the best paid in the UK, the spokeperson said. “But it is also important that government listens to our teachers about the challenges outwith the pay deal - the culture in our schools has changed post-Covid and ministers need to be sure that the reform agenda we have set out will rise to meet that challenge for our young people.
“Notwithstanding, we are providing £145.5 million in this year’s budget to protect increased teacher numbers and where this is not being delivered by a local authority, we will withhold or recoup funding which has been given for this purpose.”
