The Scottish government group responsible for teacher workforce planning is considering making changes to entry requirements for university teacher education courses so the Scottish government can meet its commitment to increase the number of teachers, and to cut class contact time.
Minutes from the government’s Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group, published on the Scottish government website on Thursday [13 October], state that universities face “significant challenges” increasing recruitment to teacher education courses in order for the government to realise its pledge to increase teacher numbers by 3,500 during the course of the current five-year Parliament - as well as to cut class contact time by 90 minutes per week.
In the 2022-23 academic year the secondary teacher recruitment target was increased by 200.
While primary teacher education courses are usually oversubscribed, it is likely that universities will have struggled to hit the increased secondary target, given that more than one in 10 places went unfilled last year when targets were lower.
The minutes state: “In terms of what can be done to help recruitment, it was suggested that more flexibility is needed around entry requirements.
“The Memorandum on Entry Requirements to Programmes of Initial Teacher Education can be updated at any point in time, and it was agreed to consider how to modify them without lowering standards.”
Changing the entry requirements for teaching courses
The meeting minutes also reveal that - while universities are being required to recruit more secondary teachers - even new teachers who have qualified in priority science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects are struggling to find permanent jobs when they complete probation.
Recently the Scottish government has come under fire over the higher proportion of new teachers on temporary contracts - with primary teachers hit particularly hard.
The minutes acknowledge there has been an overall “drop in post-probationer employment with only 80 per cent in permanent or temporary employment”, and go on to reveal that even teachers in priority Stem subjects are struggling, adding: “Chemistry is particularly low at only 23 per cent in permanent employment.”
This means that after carrying out their probation in 2020-21, just 23 per cent of new chemistry teachers were in permanent work by September last year.
The previous year, 42 per cent of chemistry post-probationers were in permanent work by the September following their probation (September 2020), and in September 2019 that figure was 58 per cent.
Every year the Scottish government spends around £2 million on bursaries to encourage career changers with degrees in Stem subjects - including chemistry graduates - to enter teaching.
Last year (2021-22) 137 Stem bursaries of £20,000 each were approved; over a fifth (31 bursaries) went to career changers wishing to study to become chemistry teachers.
Priority subjects eligible for bursaries also include maths, computing science, technological education, physics and home economics.
