Some context is required to understand the teacher vacancies ‘crisis’

We have recently seen the now almost annual story on the number of teacher vacancies across Scotland.

Some contextual information might be useful. Of the 32 authorities, 28 responded to inquiries about teacher vacancies. The 28 authorities responding reported 657 vacancies. This is an average of 23 vacancies in each responding authority. Scotland’s larger city authorities have 197 and 142 schools respectively. One of Scotland’s smaller authorities has 22 schools in it. In the summer, as at any time of the year, there will be staff turnover and vacancies in many of these schools.

Two government figures give some context. The number of full-time equivalent teachers in Scotland in 2005 was 50,756. In 2016 that numbers was 48,746. The pupil/teacher ratio got better between 2005 (17.0) and 2017 (13.6).

National Record Office figures show a rising population (it has risen for eight years running) and that is projected to continue. Migration is an element of this. There are still, and is projected to be, more deaths than births in Scotland. From 2001/02 to 2005/06 there were more deaths than births. A period of more births than deaths followed in 2006/07 to 2013/14 before deaths exceeded births again in 2014/15 and 2015/16.

We see headlines regularly about “crisis”. At the same time we need to be careful what we wish for. A continued narrative of crisis may result in reform. For some, a preferred option for reform remains an approach which will remove the combined knowledge and professional development on which a Scottish teacher’s craft is based. We have seen how successful recent education reforms can be. All improvementneedsachangebutnotall change leads to improvement. Knee-jerk politicised reactions do not equate to system-wide reform which brings significant improvement.

There are certainly specific regional teacher recruitment issues and certain subject areas remain a concern. A solutions to regional vacancies is possible. At present probationer teachers get the choice of all Scottish authorities to go to in their induction year. Can authorities feed in their workforce projections into central systems, and then probationers be allocated in a more targeted, “needs” basis? It may mean a year away from home for probationers but thereafter they have “the golden ticket”, accessing jobs across the country and internationally. After all, Scotland still holds some world clout in education, for now.