Cuts to trainee teachers went too far says Swinney as shortage bites

● Warning it could take three years to plug gap as 70 teaching posts lie vacant

Cuts to teacher training places in Scotland went “too far”, education secretary John Swinney has said, leaving hundreds of classroom posts now vacant around the country.

The Scottish Government has warned it could take up to three years to fully plug the shortage, with the most recent figures indicating there are 70 teaching posts unfilled.

The number of trainees was cut by 1,550 in 2011 to just over 2,300 at a time of high teacher unemployment.

Although this has since recovered to its former levels, Mr Swinney told MSPS on the Holyrood education committee yesterday that the reduced intake for student teachers in 2011 was a factor in the current shortage.

“The model obviously was re-calibrated to take into account the fact that teachers couldn’t get employment at that time,” the education secretary said.

“Our desire was to make sure that teachers could get employment when they had been trained to do so. Obviously there has been quite a variation in the intake levels, but they have been affected by the surplus of teachers being able to secure employment.”

The Deputy First Minister said that planning for the teacher workforce in Scotland’s schools considers “a whole range of different factors to arrive at an assumption of how many teachers we need to train to ensure we have an adequate supply of teachers.”

Asked by Labour MSP Daniel Johnson if there had been an over-correction, the education secretary conceded: “I think clearly with the benefit of hindsight the intake numbers in 2011 were probably over-corrected too far. But judgments were made at that time based on the level of teacher unemployment.”

The growing number of vacancies could be down to heavy teacher workloads, the education secretary said, but insisted he has taken steps to address this as a “priority” since being appointed to the role a year ago. He said there can be issues around the availability of supply cover.

0 John Swinney says he is addressing heavy teacher workloads as a priority