Plea to scrap rules on UK teachers

BARRIERS preventing teachers from elsewhere in the UK from working in Scottish schools should be scrapped in a bid to ease a ‘crippling’ recruitment crisis, it was claimed yesterday.

Nicola Sturgeon was attacked over her government’s record on education after it was revealed teachers from south of the Border must complete a ‘probationary year’ if moving to Scotland.

Ruth Davidson said this put teachers off moving to Scottish schools which are suffering from a ‘crippling’ shortage of staff.

The First Minister told the Scottish Tory leader the Scottish Government had already ‘fixed’ the problem but an education committee report two weeks ago confirmed teachers relocating to Scotland ‘can be required to complete a probationary year’.

It stated there was ‘potential to bring hundreds of additional teachers from elsewhere in the UK’ and recommended that those qualified to do so should ‘begin in post straightaway as opposed to needing to receive provisional registration or undertake probation’.

Between January and May this year there were 552 applications to teach being considered by the General Teaching Council for Scotland, including more than 300 from people outside the country.

Miss Davidson said: ‘Scotland’s teacher shortage is a national crisis. In such circumstances, the SNP must act now to put in place measures so these teachers can apply for jobs without any further delay.

‘It’s not good enough for Nicola Sturgeon to point to changes made a few years back – we know they don’t go far enough.’

Miss Davidson claimed one maths teacher moved to Scotland five years ago, but had been unable to work despite his training in mathematics – and 15 years experience in England. The man was told he ‘could not teach maths without a year’s retraining’.

Miss Davidson said: ‘The current situation is ridiculous – parents are being asked to plug teacher shortages while, at the same time, more than 550 qualified teachers want to start work, but can’t because of Scottish Government red tape.’

Miss Sturgeon said teachers qualifying next year could now take up a post on a conditional basis, while they worked towards becoming registered in Scotland.

She added: ‘We have increased student teacher intakes for six years in a row, in 2011 the intake to student teaching was 2,297. In the most recent year it was over 4,000.’

Earlier this week the head of Trinity Academy in Edinburgh was forced to write to parents seeking help for teaching maths lessons.