Thousands of teaching jobs in Scotland were readvertised as schools struggled to fill vacant posts, new figures show.
Statistics obtained by the Scottish Conservatives through a freedom of information request suggest that a large number of positions at primary and secondary school level across the country were not filled.
It means that in the past three years nearly 3,000 vacancies have been advertised again.
Over that time, 340 of those posts were in Aberdeen, with a further 369 in neighbouring Aberdeenshire. There were 197 jobs readvertised in Edinburgh and 120 in Glasgow.
Many concerns have been expressed about teacher recruitment in Scotland in recent times, most recently around the difficulty in persuading people to apply for headteacher posts.
Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the new figures highlight “the severe consequences of the SNP’s chaotic approach to workforce planning”.
She added: “Councils are clearly finding it very difficult in some circumstances to recruit teachers to key posts, which is why the level of readvertisement is rising and why there is a growing burden on existing teachers.
Workload and low pay ‘hit teacher recruitment’
“Naturally, this has a big impact on morale within the profession and, of course, on our young people in classrooms across Scotland.”
Ms Smith said that public anger about the SNP’s handling of education would “continue to grow if the problems of teacher recruitment persist”.
Last week, teachers overwhelmingly rejected a “final” pay offer - a headline 3 per cent rise, with bigger increases for staff on lower grades - which education secretary John Swinney has described as a “strong and fair” offer. The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association has warned it is “very likely” that teachers will take strike action.
A spokeswoman for the EIS teaching union said: “Difficulty filling vacant posts is just one example of the effects of the recruitment and retention crisis currently facing Scottish education.
“A growing number of experienced teachers are choosing to leave the profession early and not enough new teachers are coming into the system.”
She added: “In order to make teaching an attractive career option, issues of severe workload and declining pay must be addressed.”
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We continue to provide funding of £88 million each year to support councils to maintain teacher numbers. This resulted in 543 more teachers in 2017 than the previous year - the second consecutive year teacher numbers increased.
“In addition, 2,864 newly-qualified probationer teachers started on the Teacher Induction Scheme in August 2017 - 231 more than last year.”
He added: “We have taken decisive action to recruit and retain teachers through our Teaching Makes People campaign and have created new routes into the profession. We have also made bursaries of £20,000 available for career changers to train in priority subjects.”
