Teachers condemn missed opportunities to address recruitment and retention crisis

The Scottish Government and COSLA have “missed opportunities and lost momentum” in dealing with the mounting crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers, members at the Scotland Annual Conference of NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, will argue today.

Official figures show that teacher numbers fell for the first time last year since 2016 and almost 40% of places on the most popular route into secondary teaching were unfilled, with well over half of places vacant in subjects such as maths, science and computing.

Members at the Conference in Aberdeen will argue that along with the problems in recruitment, ministers and employers have put too little focus on efforts to retain teachers. They will point to the failure to fully implement the recommendations from the Independent Panel on Career Pathways for Teachers, published in 2019, which they will argue provided an opportunity to create a welcome culture change in how teachers progress and advance their careers.