SNP is accused of 'betraying' new teachers

Published on Sunday 14 June 2009 21:59

LABOUR accused the SNP government of betraying newly-qualified teachers yesterday as it claimed hundreds are being forced to compete for single posts.

Figures obtained by the party revealed there were 500 applications for a primary job advertised in North Lanarkshire earlier this year.

It said an average of 239 teachers were applying for vacancies in the local authority.

Labour's education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin described the figures as "horrifying" and warned that teaching graduates would be forced to find work in England or abroad.

She said education secretary Fiona Hyslop had "betrayed" those recruited into teaching.

Ms Brankin said: "Fiona Hyslop's handling of the teacher recruitment crisis is shameful. She is destroying the hopes of hundreds of teachers.

"To add insult to injury, the Scottish Government's website is still carrying adverts encouraging people to train as teachers while the number of positions has plummeted under the SNP. Fiona Hyslop is guilty of a serious betrayal of those enticed into teacher training when teaching posts across Scotland are being cut under her watch – by nearly a thousand last year alone.

"We will not let this issue lie."

A recent survey by the General Teaching Council in Scotland (GTCS) found that only about a third of new teachers had secured full-time permanent work almost a year after qualifying.

Figures showed that nine out of ten new teachers were in some form of employment, including part-time, supply and temporary work.

However, the number of teachers with no job at all halved over the last six months.

Ms Hyslop said of Labour's comments: "They are conveniently forgetting that teacher numbers were higher in 2007 and 2008 under the SNP than in all but one year of the Labour/Liberal administration, while at 13:1 pupil-teacher ratios in Scotland are at a record low.

"The latest GTCS figures out earlier this month show 89 per cent of newly-qualified teachers are employed in teaching – up 10.4 per cent since last autumn – and the percentage of post– probation teachers in Scotland that are not in employment has fallen dramatically over the past year from 21 per cent to 10.6 per cent.

"Perhaps Rhona Brankin should consider lobbying the Labour government at Westminster to do something about April's Jobseeker Allowance figures that show that in England there were 6.6 teacher claimants per thousand compared to 4.3 here in Scotland – the lowest anywhere in the UK."