Headteachers are calling for the Scottish government to “look more imaginatively” at teacher recruitment by targeting potential recruits earlier, and also by offering incentives to join the profession.
Stories of teacher shortages have been in the news in England, with headteachers reporting that on top of the usual hard to recruit to subjects, such as physics and maths, they are now experiencing a shortage of English teachers.
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, says that recruitment in secondary has been a longstanding issue and that this year has been no better or worse, particularly for certain subjects and in more rural areas.
“Maths, physics and computing are the main shortage areas and they are with us all the time,” he said.
Mr Thewliss is calling for the government to look “a wee bit more imaginatively” at teacher recruitment by offering incentives to join the profession in shortage subjects, including “golden hellos” and offering to pay off student loans.
He says that not being able to recruit is having an impact on the range of qualifications and courses schools can offer.
However, despite the filling of posts in some key secondary subjects being a perennial problem, a Freedom of Information request has revealed that there have been no meetings of the government group with responsibility for workforce planning this year.
Tes Scotland asked the Scottish government for the minutes of all the meetings of the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group in 2023 but was told that “there have been no meetings”.
This group has not met despite teacher numbers falling last year, when the government had pledged to increase them by 3,500, and despite just 61 per cent of places on the main route into secondary teaching - the one-year secondary postgraduate PGDE route - being filled this year.
When it came to shortage subjects, often only half of places were filled, or less.
In technological educational, 60 per cent of places were unfilled: in both physics and maths, 54 per cent; in computing, 50 per cent.
A report published this week by Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science also highlights that “a significant challenge” for recruiting and training new computing science teachers is “the limited location” of postgraduate courses.
The PGDE in computing science is only offered in three universities, with “two in the same city”, it says, adding that this “could be a potential barrier for candidates”.
The report adds that this is in contrast with other Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, such as physics, biology and chemistry, which are available in seven or eight universities in Scotland.
On secondary schools’ recruitment difficulties, Mr Thewliss said that targeting university students in the hope of selling teaching as a career was too little, too late.
He said: “We are suggesting you should be targeting people earlier on and we are also suggesting we should be looking at certain incentives and looking a wee bit more imaginatively at what we do.
“If one of the problems is attracting science and mathematics graduates because they can get more money elsewhere, let’s give them a ‘golden hello’ or attract people by saying ‘we will pay off your student loan if you come into the profession and stay for five years’.
“The five years is relevant because if people come and stay for two to three years, they tend to stay [in the profession] because they have commitments - they have started a family and so on.
“It’s not just about attracting teachers, it’s also about retaining teachers.”
In terms of the impact shortages were having, Mr Thewliss said there were some schools where “restrictions are put on the curriculum on account of not having enough staff”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Local authorities are responsible for teacher recruitment, and they have autonomy to provide incentives to attract teachers to their area because they employ our teachers, not central government.
“However, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of education stakeholders, is looking in detail at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland. 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. The Scottish Education Council discussed these issues at its most recent meeting with the cabinet secretary [for education, Jenny Gilruth].
“Additionally, the government is providing our councils with £145.5 million in this year’s budget to protect increased teacher numbers. Where this is not being delivered by a local authority, we will withhold or recoup funding given for this purpose.”
The spokesperson added: “We continue to provide teaching bursaries of £20,000 to incentivise career changers into initial teacher education for the hardest to fill subjects.
“However, the call from headteachers is a pertinent one, particularly given the challenges that exist in recruitment for certain secondary subjects in certain areas and the fact that Scottish teachers are the best paid in the UK, thanks to an historic pay deal.
“It is already the case that the government provides ‘golden hellos’ for probationary teachers who opt to undertake their probation anywhere in the country - that’s worth an additional £8,000 per secondary teacher. The cabinet secretary will be engaging directly with [local authorities body] Cosla on this issue.”
