Fears for pupils hit by crisis in teacher training
Workload blamed as recruitment in maths and science falls below target
THE teaching profession has been hit by gaping trainee recruitment shortfalls in maths and science, sparking fears pupils will miss out on vital learning experiences.
Provisional figures for 2020/21 show the intake to initial teacher education through a secondary-level graduate diploma (PGDE) and other routes fell well below targets in a number of areas, including chemistry and physics.
Critics have warned that failure to maintain a steady inflow could increase the likelihood of subject classes being led by staff whose main qualification is in another discipline and who may not have the same degree of expertise, passion or interest.
The risk is that pupils lose enthusiasm for the subject before they reach the senior phase, potentially depriving the economy of scientists, engineers and mathematicians.
Concerns over recruitment come after the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reported declining scores for Scottish pupils in maths and science.
Union leaders said the latest statistics highlighted the need for a renewed focus on issues such as pay, workload and career progression.
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said: “It’s been a problem for a number of years – how do we attract people into the profession? How do we make it attractive in terms of pay and career structures?
“Workload is driving lots of teachers away. This is the sort of issue you have to address.
“We have to make it an attractive proposition by addressing the fundamentals, which means the support system in school, career opportunities, and managing and controlling workload.
“The impact [of any shortfall in trainee teachers in specific subject areas] is that those who are qualified in those subjects will primarily be teaching senior pupils, who need to be prepared for exams and assessments, and not so much younger pupils such as those in S3. The downside then is those children don’t get a grounding in the subject with the experts.
“If you have a teacher who’s in love with, say, chemistry, that comes across to children very quickly and it enthuses them to stay with the subject further up the school.
“If that experience is not quite as good, a youngster can be turned off those subjects. And if the pupils are not really involved in a subject at the earlier stage, the risk is you have lost those children for the duration [of their schooling]. You want the specialists to be teaching all the way through school.”
New figures show that the intake for chemistry was 100 against a target of 150. Sizeable shortfalls were also recorded in maths, with an intake of
173 against a target of 230, physics
(intake: 84, target: 120) and technological education (intake: 59, target: 82). Recruitment for computing fell a little short (intake: 44, target: 47).
However, some subject areas – among them biology, art, business education and history – were ahead of target.
Across the primary and secondary sectors, and including other avenues such as undergraduate degrees, student teacher intake in October last year was 3,999 against a target of 4,070.
“In terms of maths and science graduates, I think the alternative employment opportunities outside of teaching for them are far better,” said Mr Searson.
“We need to make teaching as attractive a proposition as possible and, if we’re going to invest in them, we need to keep them for the long term.
“It may be we have to need to consider something like enhanced pay in certain subject areas to encourage new teachers to come in.
“It’s about keeping good teachers in the classroom and not forcing them into management posts just to get an increase in salary, and it’s something that would attract specialist staff.”
Larry Flanagan, EIS general secretary, said “continuing challenges” around recruiting enough science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates into education as teachers reflected “a pervading view of teaching as a highly stressful working environment”.
A Government spokeswoman said: “Figures published on December 15 show teacher numbers increased for the fifth year in a row, rising to 53,400 in 2020, an increase of 1,153.
“There are now more teachers than at any time since 2008.
“Last week we announced the STEM bursary scheme to encourage more people to train as secondary school teachers in physics, chemistry, mathematics, computing science, technical education and home economics is set to continue.”