What is the wider impact of the teacher recruitment crisis? The implications are certainly far-ranging, beyond even the more immediate impact on those seeking work.
The lack of consistency and continuity of staffing, for example, is having an impact on our learners, with pupils being subject to changes of teacher regularly and expected to quickly form new relationships. For many pupils, particularly those with additional needs, this creates barriers to learning and goes against our shared priority of closing the attainment gap.
Families appreciate building lasting relationships with schools, where siblings are taught by the same teachers, who develop deep understanding of family and community need. However, teachers are often no longer able to build meaningful links to the communities where they work, as they are being regularly moved and often allocated to schools miles from their own homes.
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And as for developing a school community? Imagine the challenge for school leaders in trying to create a shared vision and culture when staff turnover is high. Permanent teachers can now be the minority in some schools and, as a result, find themselves having to take on more and more. That turnover means they are being relied on, to ever-increasing degrees, to support the constantly changing groups of colleagues around them.
There is also the issue of professional development, access to which is essential to creating a high-quality workforce. Are temporary teachers really being given opportunities for genuine professional review and development? Are headteachers likely to spend precious training budgets on temporary teachers? Even if they do, it may well be of benefit to no one if the teacher is then moved to a school with differing priorities and no opportunity to put their training into practice.
The teaching unions are right to be pushing the issue of permanency for our colleagues, who are unable to secure mortgages or having to take on additional jobs. However, they should also be concerned about what the casualisation of the workforce does to our ability to have effective and constructive dialogue with senior leaders. If a staff team is largely made up of teachers on temporary contracts, are they going to feel confident in articulating opposing views to headteachers? Are they going to be able to advocate for pupils in the same way that they would if their livelihood wasn’t hanging in the balance?
Even if you are a teacher lucky enough to obtain a much-coveted permanent contract, you are likely to be in a permanent supply or area cover role, where you are still regularly moved or, in some cases, working across several schools in one week.
And, if you are in the dream scenario of being permanent to a school, there is a niggling feeling in the back of your head that you will be unable to ever move jobs in future, should you want to. While we need consistency and continuity in our schools, we also need a workforce where teachers don’t feel trapped in schools far away from their homes or where they aren’t able to put professional learning into practice.
The reality is that teachers all over Scotland are working hard to buffer the impact of these issues, whether on temporary or permanent contracts. We are used to digging deep for our pupils, families and colleagues, and the past 18 months of Covid have exemplified that.
However, unless the Scottish government and local authorities address the recruitment situation, it won’t just be newly qualified teachers seeking employment elsewhere - experienced teachers will be totally burnt out, too.
Sarah Lathan is a primary and ASN (additional support needs) teacher from Glasgow
