Scotland’s schools now ‘fully staffed.’ That can’t be good for us in the media, can it?

Reporting Scotland Editor: ‘Why is he smiling? FFS tell him to stop smiling! It’s not good news!

From the, of course biased, Scottish government website:

Advertised vacancies for permanent primary teacher roles have dropped by more than half since last year, from 204 to 88, according to new data. Meanwhile, local councils have advertised 224 fewer permanent teacher vacancies for primary and secondary schools combined compared to the same time last year.

There are currently 24 899 primary teachers in Scotland so that’s a vacancy rate of 0.35%. Whoever is the Labour spokesperson said: ‘It’s not good enough!’

Teaching vacancies for the secondary sector alone – with primary schools removed – dropped by more than 100, from 402 to 294. The data also indicates the number of posts advertised for more than three months has nearly halved, from 157 in 2018 to 88.

There are currently 23 317 secondary teachers in Scotland so that’s a vacancy rate of 1.26% or 0.37% for longer-term vacancies. Whoever is the Tory spokesperson said: ‘It’s not good enough!’

There was more:

  • advertised vacancies for secondary Maths and English teachers have more than halved since 2017
  • since 2017 there have been drops in advertised vacancies in almost all secondary school subjects
  • the drop has been particularly sharp for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Home Economics vacancies

https://news.gov.scot/news/fall-in-teacher-vacancies

4 thoughts on “Scotland’s schools now ‘fully staffed.’ That can’t be good for us in the media, can it?”

  1. Generally, I find that Mr Jamie McArthur takes his job quite seriously and attempts to present the nuances of any issue. As you know, in education most things are fairly complex and not amenable to the soundbite.

    However, GMS will quote uncritically, if the EIS, or more usually, the SSTA, puts out a statement saying that in some respect ‘Scottish education is pure bad’, particularly based on a poll of a tiny proportion of members in a poll run by the union along the lines of:
    Discipline in Scottish schools is
    a) really bad,
    b) pure bad and getting worse
    c) Ah wid leave ramorra if ye gied me hauf a million poun pey oot

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      2. You are right to correct me. I had got the education correspondent mixed up with the Scottish international footballer who now plays for Crystal Palace. I had come across him several times when he was a schoolboy footballer and, with Scotland having had a match last night, I guess it was too much for my ageing brain.

        That’s my excuse, anyway.

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