Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this.

From the Guardian today:

Newly-qualified teachers are planning to quit the UK to teach abroad because of abject pay and conditions in schools at home, new evidence has revealed. Teacher-training courses across the country are warning of a rise in the number of trainees opting for international posts for their first job, attracted by higher salaries, more respect in and out of the classroom – and an escape from Ofsted.

The trend will exacerbate the teacher shortage crisis already hitting UK schools. Teacher vacancies in England have nearly doubled since before Covid. Vacancies posted by schools earlier this year were 93% higher than at the same point in 2019, data from the National Foundation for Educational Research shows. But the government is missing its teacher-training targets year on year. The undershoot for secondary trainee entrants was 41% in 2022-23, with just 12,356 students enrolling. At primary level, 6,527 applicants were on courses in April this year, down from 8,100 in 2022.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/05/newly-qualified-teachers-quit-uk-for-schools-abroad-due-to-abject-pay-and-conditions

Scotland’s media are full of course of tales of doom in our schools too. Missing, of course, this important contextual evidence.

1. How well staffed are Scotland’s schools after 16 years of SNP Government?

From end 2022:

Pupil to teacher ratios in maintained schools were lowest in Scotland (13.2) and similar in Northern Ireland (17.7), England (18.0) and Wales (18.5).

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk

So, crudely, the average teacher in Tory England or Labour Wales has to cover the work of around 38% more pupils than their equivalent in Scotland.

2. How well are teachers paid to retain them after 16 years of SNP Government?

From the Times in December 2022: