Four in every five new teachers fail to land a full-time job

Statistics released by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTC) show only 20.9 per cent of probationers had managed to find full-time permanent contracts.

While the figure is up from 16.1 per cent in 2010, it still represents a marked decline from the situation five years ago when almost half of newly qualified teachers found full-time work.

The details emerged as Scottish Government figures showed the number of teachers working in Scotland’s schools has fallen to its lowest level since the Nationalists took office in 2007. Education secretary Mike Russell said he would consider increasing teacher-training places after figures showed there are currently 51,441 teachers working across Scotland’s state schools and publicly funded special schools, down from 55,100 when the SNP won the election four years ago.

Mr Russell said that despite a fall on last year, the 51,286 teachers in Scotland’s council-run schools was still better than the target of 51,131 agreed with local government and unions.

He raised the possibility of increasing the number of teachers in training, but unions warned that increased training places had to be met with more jobs.

“Today’s figures show that in line with our agreement with our partners in teaching unions and local government, they have delivered our commitment to maintain teacher numbers,” he said. “The statistics report that teacher numbers in local authority schools stand at 51,286, in excess of the target of 51,131.”

Mr Russell added: “I think this was the hardest problem I inherited. We’ve made great progress over a two-year period and the corner has been turned. We may have to increase the number in training.”

The Scottish Government’s figures showed two-thirds of teachers found either permanent or temporary employment in 2011, compared with 58 per cent last year.

However, statistics published by the General Teaching Council for Scotland yesterday showed the number of probationers with full-time jobs was just 20.9 per cent.

While many teachers are in part-time or supply work, the figures also showed that 18.8 percent of probationers were without work of any kind.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said increasing training places for teachers needed to be met with the creation of more jobs to prevent more graduates “joining the dole queue” or earning “the same as shelf stacker” as a supply teacher.

She said: “Increasing training places would work if there was also an increase in the number of posts. There’s been a bit of a boom-and-bust approach to this issue in the past, so we need a more joined-up approach where we target specific shortages. Home economics teachers are like gold dust and chemistry teachers are in very short supply. In some areas of the country there’s not enough maths teachers, so we need to target these positions.”

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS), welcomed the news that the minimum target had been met for teaching numbers, but said there was more work to do.

He said: “These are difficult times for everyone, including for education and public services, so it is welcome that local authorities have met their commitment on teacher employment numbers for this year.

“While this news is welcome, the guarantee on teacher numbers is for this year alone, so we must work hard in the years ahead to ensure that teacher numbers are maintained, both to protect teachers’ jobs and to ensure that pupils can continue to receive a high-quality education delivered by Scotland’s highly qualified teachers.”