Pressures of teaching ‘scaring off new heads’

SCOTLAND’S system for filling teacher vacancies is ‘complicated and murky’ and heads’ posts are not being filled due to the jobs’ ‘stresses’, experts claim.

MSPs heard yesterday that local authorities are having difficulty attracting applicants for senior roles at schools.

Teachers have told Holyrood’s education committee in recent weeks that the job’s demands have left them ‘utterly exhausted’.

Now experts have warned MSPs the demands and accountability associated with the roles of senior staff – including heads – have seen a fall in applicants for vacancies.

They also said that due to the ‘complex’ system of recording and filling vacancies, it is difficult to estimate how many positions are free and where they are.

Recent figures have shown there are 700 vacancies in schools, which will take at least three years to fill. There are 4,000 fewer teachers and 1,000 fewer support staff than when the SNP took power ten years ago.

John Stodter, of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, was one of those giving evidence to the committee yesterday.

He said: ‘There was never a formal or robust way of putting a number on the vacancies because you have to interpret what a vacancy is, when it is a long-term vacancy or a longstanding vacancy and at what point of the year do you do this?’

Nationalist MSP James Dornan said the system appeared to be ‘very complicated and murky’.

Mr Stodter agreed, adding: ‘It is certainly complex.’

He also highlighted problems around attracting applicants for head teacher roles, saying the ‘stresses and strains’ of the job put many off applying.

Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents secondary heads, told MSPs ‘there has been an erosion of teachers’ conditions’.

He warned that there was no financial incentive for deputes to make the move to become heads.

The committee also took evidence on the SNP’s controversial Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland ensures teachers are properly qualified and registered, and also accredits the teacher training courses provided by universities.

Chief executive Ken Muir said universities had made a ‘genuine attempt’ to meet the ‘complex and wide range of needs’ teachers have under the CfE.

But he added: ‘I think we recognise from the schools and the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence that there is still a way to go in teachers understanding the philosophy and thinking behind Curriculum for Excellence in order that it can be implemented successfully.’

Mr Muir was also questioned by the committee over concerns trainee primary teachers are graduating without sufficient skills to teach maths to P7 pupils.

He conceded there was ‘inconsistency’ in the coverage of key areas such as literacy and numeracy.

‘Vacancy count increasing’