Shortage of teachers to last 3 years, admits SNP

THE teacher recruitment crisis will take three years to tackle, Scottish Government figure show.

Figures highlighted yesterday showed there are nearly 700 teacher vacancies in Scotland.

Official ‘teacher work force planning’ guidance revealed by Labour yesterday indicates it could take three years to deal with the problem in secondary schools.

Labour also highlighted an email sent from Blackhall Primary School in Edinburgh to parents which states there is a ‘national shortage’ of teachers which ‘makes it challenging for head teachers around the country who are trying to fill vacant posts or cover classes due to illness/unforeseen circumstances’.

Nicola Sturgeon was yesterday criticised for the crisis, when she has previously pledged to make education her number one priority. Scottish Labour l eader Kezia Dugdale said: ‘The reality is that under the SNP there are 700 teacher vacancies in Scotland.

‘Four hundred of these vacancies are in our secondary schools, where pupils will begin exams in just a few days. Too many young people are losing out because the Nationalists won’t focus on our schools instead of trying to break up Britain.

‘The SNP has admitted that it will take up to three years to deal with the teacher shortage in Scotland. But we know that Nicola Sturgeon will spend the next three years campaigning for independence and trying to force another divisive referendum.’

In a letter to the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Government said there were 274 pre- school or primary teacher vacancies and 411 in secondary schools.

It stated: ‘This teacher vacancy information has been built in to the statistical modelling process with a view to attempting to address all primary vacancies in one year and using a phased approach over three years for secondary.’

At First Minister’s Questions, Miss Dugdale said that if education was Miss Sturgeon’s top priority she ‘would be listening to the teachers across Scotland who are crying out for help’.

Miss Sturgeon said funding had been made available to train an additional 371 teachers in 2017/18, taking the total number of student training places to 3,861. Her government has ‘never shied away from the issue that Scotland has an issue with teacher recruitment’.

Miss Sturgeon added: ‘That is one of the reasons we have increased the intake to teacher training.’

‘Too many young people lose out’