Teacher numbers have increased for six years in a row, according to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Shirley-Anne Somerville.
This is despite the fact that one MSP revealed in parliament that pupil behaviour is bad: “In West Dunbartonshire, in my region, pupils at a secondary school went so far as to create fake dating profiles to humiliate teachers.”
Shirley-Anne Somerville told the Holyrood parliament: “Teacher numbers have increased for six years in a row. There are now more teachers than at any time since 2008 and more than 2,000 more teachers than before the start of the pandemic in 2019.
“We have provided £240 million of additional investment over two financial years to support that and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding from April this year to support the sustained employment of those teachers.
“The new phase of our teacher recruitment campaign is under way. We are continuing to offer bursaries for career changers to move into STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—teaching, and we have increased initial teacher education targets for student intakes this year.
However, Conservative Pam Gosal was sceptical. She told MSPs: “In a recent Educational Institute of Scotland member survey, 17.8 per cent of respondents said that violence and abuse from pupils was the greatest cause of stress in the past 12 months.
“In West Dunbartonshire, in my region, pupils at a secondary school went so far as to create fake dating profiles to humiliate teachers.
“Does the cabinet secretary agree that the long-term retention of teachers will be more difficult if such problems continue? What action is the Government taking to end such abuse permanently?”
Shirley-Anne Somerville replied: “Teacher well-being is absolutely critical at all times, but particularly given the challenging circumstances in which teachers and support staff have been working during the pandemic.
“Behaviour such as abuse of or attacks on teachers and support staff is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.
“It is very important that schools and local authorities have strict processes and measures in place to deal with certain circumstances when they happen.
“If there is a requirement for further support—from the Government or Education Scotland, for example—for councils and, indeed, schools directly as they target that abuse, we stand ready to give that support.”
Labour member Martin Whitfield interjected: “The cabinet secretary has talked about the increasing number of teachers. Can she confirm how many of those new posts will require applicants to have additional support qualifications or experience?”
Shirley-Anne Somerville replied: “As the member knows, all teachers are trained to be able to deal with and support pupils with additional support needs.
“He will also be aware of the proposal and assurance in our agreement with the Scottish Greens that we look at what more we can do to insist that teachers are able and supported to deal with those matters.
“I will gladly keep the member and the Parliament updated on that as we move forward with that work with our colleagues in the Scottish Greens.”
But LibDem education spokesperson Willie Rennie was not content to leave it there.
He said: “I remain very concerned about the large number of unemployed teachers, as well as those on casual, short-term contracts.
” The last time that I asked the cabinet secretary how many there were in the country, she did not have a clue.
“If the Government does not know the scale of the problem, how will we fix it? Does the cabinet secretary have an answer yet?”
Shirley-Anne Somerville replied: “As Mr Rennie well knows, workforce planning goes on in both the Scottish Government and local government to ensure that we have sufficient teachers in place in individual schools. We work on that with local authority partners.
“The Scottish Government has committed additional funding to ensure that the number of teachers on permanent contracts is looked at exceptionally seriously. The funding for local government has now been baselined.
“There is no need for teachers to be on a temporary contract if they were previously on a temporary contract under the Covid funding. That is a matter for local authorities, which recruit and retain teachers.
Kaukab Stewart, SNP, asked: “What impact is increased investment in teacher recruitment having on pupil to teacher ratios?”
Shirley-Anne Somerville told her colleague: “As I said, there are now more teachers than at any time since 2008. The ratio of pupils to teachers is at its lowest since 2009.”