Leader comment: Teachers must speak out

Opposition parties have leapt on the teacher recruitment crisis that The Scotsman highlighted yesterday, but far more significantly, a senior figure within the profession has now spoken out.

The teacher shortage issue was raised by unfilled vacancies in maths. Picture: Jetta Productions

In a damning critique, Rod Grant, the headteacher of Clifton Hall School in Edinburgh, talked of a demotivated workforce who were ready to leave teaching “in droves”.

His withering critique, albeit from the perspective of the private sector, follows the head of Trinity Academy, a state sector school also in the capital, issuing a plea to parents to help after failing to fill two maths teacher vacancies.

Mr Grant has voiced his opinions because he cares deeply about education.

But we also need testimony from people on the front line if such fundamental problems with teaching are to be addressed.

Headteachers in the state system may feel constrained from speaking so candidly, fearful of losing their jobs.

But we hope Mr Grant’s remarks will prompt others to follow suit. This subject is too important to be left unsaid.