Two ads but no maths teachers for city school
Edinburgh University students drafted in to teach pupils
A Scottish secondary school has failed in its second attempt to appoint two maths teachers.
Trinity Academy in Edinburgh cannot fill the posts because of a lack of suitable applicants. A Freedom of Information inquiry by The Scotsman last month revealed third-year maths students from Edinburgh University were being drafted in to help after the first advert for the posts failed to yield suitable candidates for interview.
In September the school’s head teacher Bryan Paterson appealed to parents for help, citing the national shortage of science-based teachers for vacancies.
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary, said pupil education was suffering.
She said: “Once again we are seeing Scottish schools struggling to attract enough teachers. The recruitment crisis in our education system is only getting worse, and pupils are paying the price.
“It means pupils at Trinity Academy will have to continue to rely on teachers from other subjects filling the gaps, and this will have inevitably have a knock-on effect for results.”
A spokeswoman for Edinburgh City Council said: “We have been working closely with the school over filling the vacancies and will continue with the various measures put in place, which has the support of the parent council, to minimise disruption to the pupils’ learning.
“Our priority remains ensuring the curriculum continues to be delivered to the highest possible standard.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Although teacher recruitment is a matter for local authorities, we recognise some areas have faced challenges filling vacancies. This is why we have invested £88 million in 2017 alone, resulting in 453 more teachers in Scottish classrooms than last year.
“We have taken decisive action to help recruit and retain teachers through our Teaching Makes People campaign, focusing specifically on attracting new teachers and career changers into Stem [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] and other subjects.
“We recently announced bursaries of £20,000 for career changer s to train as teachers of priority Stem subjects.”
“The recruitment crisis in our education system is only getting worse, and pupils are paying the price.”
sross@scotsman.com