Fears of schools crisis as number of new teachers plunges by 14%

FEARS of a ‘workforce crisis’ in schools have been raised after the number of newly qualified primary teachers plummeted by 14 per cent.

The number of entrants to teacher training has also dropped by 6 per cent, new figures reveal.

The revelation comes days after a report by the Sutton Trust showed Scotland is failing to help bright but disadvantaged pupils who are lagging behind their better-off classmates.

Since the SNP came to power in 2007, there has also been a 12 per cent slump in the number of maths and science teachers in the country’s schools.

Official figures show that there are 4,000 fewer teachers in Scotland than a decade ago – with maths and science teachers decreasing by 826.

In a written response to Scottish Labour’s Daniel Johnson this week, further and higher education minister Shirley-Anne Somerville revealed the drop in new primary teacher numbers.

The latest figures show the number fell from 785 in 2012-13 to 675 in 2014-15 – a 14 per cent drop.

Entrants to primary teaching courses last year decreased from 795 to 750 – a decline of 6 per cent.

Scottish Labour education spokesman Mr Johnson said: ‘These figures look like the makings of a deepening workforce crisis. Under the SNP Government there are already 4,000 fewer teachers in our classrooms. Now we are seeing falling numbers of people training to be teachers.’

He attacked the SNP’s promise to make education its top priority ‘as an awful lot like pre-election spin rather than real commitment’.

Mr Johnson added: ‘John Swinney needs more than a few posters to encourage more people into teaching – a start would be to give our schools the resources they need.

‘The reality is the SNP-Green Budget deal will mean local coun- cils having their budgets cut by £1.5billion since 2011.’

The Scottish Government’s Budget for the next year has slashed £160million from local authority funding – with many now being forced to raise council tax or cut services to meet financial pressures. SNP-run Perth and Kinross council had previously revealed it was considering cutting the number of English and maths teachers, and stopping swimming lessons at primary schools.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We have committed £88million this year so every school has access to the right number of teachers. We have also increased student teacher intake targets for the fifth year in a row and set targets to train teachers in the subjects where they are needed most.

It added that last year’s ‘Inspiring Teachers’ campaign had driven a 19 per cent increase in teacher training applications.

‘Budgets cut by £1.5billion’