Teachers need ‘confidence not qualifications’

Aspiring primary teachers should not be required to have science or maths qualifications amid staffing problems in Scottish schools, MSPS have been told.

Potential “obstacles” to teacher training, such as qualification requirements in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem), could limit the number of people going into the job, Holyrood’s Education Committee heard.

Education minister Richard Lochhead said the government has to be “careful” about restricting people who want to be teachers, and insisted the confidence to teach Stem subjects is more important than qualifications or experience.

The committee had heard from the head of the General Teaching Council for Scotland, who said the body is often asked to introduce new minimum standards for trainee teachers.

Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith asked the minister about the “reluctance to go down that road, because of the shortage of teacher numbers”, and the apparent tension between teaching standards and recruitment.

Mr Lochhead said: “Putting extra barriers in the place of aspiring teachers is one that we have to be very conscious of.

“The more qualifications we ask aspiring teachers to have, clearly the more obstacles we put in place for applicants.”

Stuart Robb, head of the education workforce unit, told MSPS: “The recruitment of teachers and student teachers is challenging in some subjects,” but he said alternative routes into the industry have brought 770 extra teachers or students into the system.