More teachers quit than expected

● Swinney admits government has been caught out over teaching crisis

John Swinney has admitted more teachers left the profession this year than the Scottish Government could have predicted.

The education secretary pledged to address teachers’ pay in an effort to retain staff and said he would consider waiving a postgraduate course fee for “career switchers”.

about teacher recruitment around the country.”

In response to questions from Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith, Mr Swinney said he was trying to attract “career switchers” into the profession as well as encouraging already-registered teachers who are not currently working to take on supply shifts.

He added that he would consider a suggestion from committee member Richard Lochhead of waiving the £6,500 fee to study for a PGDE, Scotland’s postgraduate education qualification. In October, the Scottish Government announced a scheme to provide bursaries of £20,000 for career changers willing to train as teachers of maths, computing science, physics or technical education – the so-called Stem subjects.

Mr Swinney said: “I am quite open to looking at different suggestions of this type.

“What is clear from the data is that if our workforce planning model is saying to us that for 2017-18 that we need 4,058 teachers and we can only recruit into the education process 3,861, we must find other channels and routes to motivate individuals other than the fundamentally traditional routes from leaving schools and going into teaching or doing an undergrad degree and a postgraduate qualification.”

The education secretary also said the government was targeting the University of the Highlands and Islands to recruit teachers specifically in the more rural areas of Scotland.

He said: “I think there is a particular opportunity because of the model of education that the UHI operates on, individuals can live in their community, get their education in the community and ideally once graduated, teach in that community.”

Ms Smith said: “Teacher shortages are crippling our education system and the Scottish Government has no idea how to remedy the situation any time soon.”