Teacher shortage summit 'encouraging'
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A HIGH-PROFILE summit aimed at helping resolve the north of Scotland’s teacher recruitment crisis has been described as "very encouraging" by Moray’s education chief.
However, Laurence Findlay said the event in Aberdeen was only the "start of a process" and much more work will be needed to ease the pressure on Moray’s classrooms.
The ‘Raising Attainment: Securing Teachers’ summit in Aberdeen’s Beach Ballroom attracted education directors from Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Highland, Western Isles, the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. Angela Constance, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning, was also in attendance.
The crunch talks were organised on the back of what has been described as an unprecedented low number of teacher applicants throughout the north of Scotland.
Moray is feeling the effects as much as anywhere, having posted more than 50 teacher job adverts at the start of the new school term.
At the time, Mr Findlay, Moray Council’s director of education and social care, described the vacancy situation as the worst he had seen in August during his 13 years working with Moray Council.
With the closing dates for those positions having only recently passed, however, Mr Findlay said it is too early to gauge the level of interest or whether they all will be filled.
In January this year, Moray Council had between 70 and 80 teaching vacancies, and as of yesterday (Thursday) it had 16 teaching jobs advertised on its website.
Before the summit, also attended by representatives from the General Teaching Council for Scotland and teacher unions, Mrs Constance was asked by the seven authorities to consider establishing a nationally-supported taskforce to agree an action plan for northern Scotland.
She was also asked to consider a north of Scotland weighting allowance for public sector workers, and address the annual budget settlement for councils in the north to reflect the challenges they face.
After the talks, Mr Findlay told ‘The Northern Scot’: "It was very encouraging and a very good turnout from the seven north authorities, both in terms of officers and politically.
"The cabinet secretary outlined her commitment to look for solutions to try and consider the best ways forward.
"She admitted that she didn’t come with a blank cheque book, or a cheque book at all for that matter, but what we will be looking at now is setting up a working group to pro-actively solve some of the problems to the recruitment crisis. I would say for the first event, it was encouraging, but it’s still very early.
"What’s very important is that we have been talking about this as individual local authorities for a year, probably more. To have everybody come together as a group was encouraging.
"We see it as the start of a process of an ongoing relationship with the government for the future."
According to Mr Findlay, Ms Constance acknowledged specific difficulties, such as the rurality of Moray and Highland, and the cost of housing in Aberdeen and Aberdeen City.
In Moray, Mr Findlay said head teacher recruitment continues to be a particular concern.
"It’s a national problem, but head teacher recruitment is proving very difficult. People do not seem to be attracted to making the step up from depute head."
Mr Findlay said that the difference in salary between a depute head teacher and a head teacher at a small school can be relatively small, although head teachers at larger schools are paid considerably more.
A knock-on effect of the teacher shortage has seen some head teachers forced to return to the classroom to help out.
"The problem is that if you are taking on a headship at a large school, as things stand, you might be having to teach as well, and with all of the additional work you are going to burn out. You are not going to have time to lead and manage a school," he said.
"I would say the teacher shortage has certainly exacerbated that issue."
Other pertinent factors, he said, include considering how newly qualified teachers are recruited.
At the moment, new graduates can specify in which part of the country they would like to work, said Mr Findlay. Proposals were put forward at the summit to potentially increase recruitment packages to encourage more teachers to move north, he explained.
Another issue, he said, is an ongoing consultation by the General Teaching Council for Scotland – which registers teachers in Scotland – to potentially change its guidelines.
These criteria currently prevent teachers trained in the rest of the UK – as well as in many other areas of the world – from teaching in Scotland.
"We have so many military spouses, for example, and we could benefit from any changes," said Mr Findlay.
Mr Findlay said he knew of 12 teachers whose spouses are in the military in Moray, but they are not being permitted to teach. He also said there may be others who have not come forward.
More in this week's 'Northern Scot' print edition
