By offsetting low uptake in priority subjects with over-recruitment in social subjects and PE, teacher training is storing up problems for Scottish teachers in future.
The Education Secretary’s pledge to provide funding that guarantees work in 2020/21 for newly qualified teachers (NQTs) rightly assuaged the concerns of successful probationers in fraught and uncertain times. Having made every effort to qualify as teachers, it is only right that they have the chance to teach.
However, John Swinney’s promise highlighted the pre-existing fault-lines in teaching recruitment and retention that COVID-19 has exacerbated. Namely, it has marginalised recently qualified teachers (RQTs): those who had successfully completed their probation in earlier years but have yet to secure permanent contracts or posts in their subjects.
Even before the pandemic, vacancies were being advertised by schools only to be withdrawn after the appointment of a probationer, whose annual salary of £27,498 offers a substantial saving on a qualified teacher’s minimum salary of £32,994. Now, the effect of subsidising NQTs in 2020/21 will undoubtedly lead to cash-strapped councils and underfunded schools giving preference to both NQTs and the further use of probationers, thereby diminishing the job prospects of RQTs even more.
How have we reached a situation where one set of trainees is, to an extent, displaced by the next? From my experience as a History teacher, university staff told us at interview that, although applications for the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in our subject were high, admissions could be in single figures due to the calibration of universities, local authorities and the Scottish Government, thereby preventing wasteful and unnecessary over-recruitment. However, our course began with nearly 20 student teachers. What caused this increase?
‘Thus inflation is unjust and deflation is inexpedient’
A review of Scottish Government statistics shows that the number of History teaching students admitted to PGDE programmes consistently exceeds the recruitment target set by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC):
|
History PGDE Intake |
||
|
Year |
SFC target |
Students recruited |
|
48 |
66 |
|
|
58 |
71 |
|
|
58 |
67 |
|
|
58 |
68 |
|
|
58 |
TBC |
|
|
*Intake figures for this year include students in alternative routes. |
||
Cumulatively, the intake for History was 123% of the targets from 2016/17 to 2019/20. In the same period, the intakes for Geography (102%), Modern Studies (106%) and PE (107%) also exceeded SFC targets.
This is in stark contrast to recruitment for nine ‘priority subjects’ designated by the Scottish Government. Each of them was under-recruited in 2019/20, with significant shortfalls in English (86%) and Maths (68%).
A fuller academic study than my own cursory research would certainly highlight more factors. Nevertheless, the prima facie evidence suggests that under-recruitment of priority subjects is being addressed by over-recruiting in others, particularly in History, which are easy to oversubscribe.
Indeed, the SFC was explicit on this point in 2017. Penalties for recruitment above or below their targets for subjects could be considered against universities, but Scottish Government advice suggested ‘it may be possible to exercise flexibility in applying clawback for under-recruitment in priority subjects if universities agree to accept the targets totalling 1,750’ places on PGDE secondary courses in 2017/18 – an increase of 400 from 2016/17.
One step forward, two steps back
What is the effect, therefore, on the jobs market for History teachers? From my own experience, it means being subject to a postcode lottery on probation, with councils differing in their ability and aspiration to retain their own trainees.
It has meant working tirelessly during evenings, weekends and holidays for your pupils and the wider school, only to be told that the History vacancy advertised for your school has been withdrawn and another probationer allocated for the following year.
It means the insecurity of supply work and short-term contracts, though still gratefully accepted, in order to keep working in the profession.
It means being one of 30 to 40 applicants for each vacancy in your subject despite the fact that schools tend to favour staff already known to them.
So, when NQTs have, rightly, been guaranteed work for 2020/21, and the GTCS has even called for retirees to come back to aid education recovery, it is no wonder that many RQTs feel despondent and disregarded through no fault of their own.
Swinney’s actions during the pandemic have not inspired confidence. The pattern of announcing policy, being sent homeward to think again before quickly reversing that policy, has been almost comical. For instance, he should have foreseen that a categorical pledge to NQTs would marginalise any teachers who were not in that category. After lobbying from RQTs and teaching unions, £50m was then found to recruit 850 extra teachers and 200 more support staff – yet Iain Gray pointed out this added up to ‘less than half a staff member per school’. In response, the numbers were quickly rounded up to 1,400 extra teachers at a cost of £75m. This relentless chasing of his own tail suggests that the Education Secretary might not hold a full view of the facts prior to acting; that he approaches policy making with the same due diligence of David Cameron doing a family headcount before leaving the pub.
Course correction(s)
How can we resolve this growing problem? It is clearly out of the question to freeze recruitment for over-subscribed subjects, but one must ask why a more nuanced approach cannot be taken, such as reducing targets to balance out excess recruitment in prior years. One could argue in response that not all PGDE students and probationers are successful, but this is another problem entirely (and for probationers, a growing problem since 2013/14), not an excuse for poor recruitment practices.
While universities will rely on PGDE funding for staff costs and to run programmes, they will not attract future applicants if they continue to produce teacher surpluses and employment deficits in particular subjects. Worryingly, a 2019 report showed that 18% of teachers who had qualified since 2012 had left the profession.
The Scottish Government will attempt to avoid the embarrassment of missing recruitment targets for priority subjects. Rather than inflating other subjects in order to save face, it should take the savings from under-subscribed PGDE courses and use them to find more effective means than the Pupil Equity Fund to strengthen school budgets in order to raise attainment levels for pupils in areas of high deprivation.
To that point, a change of policy to empower all schools to teach National qualifications during S3 and S4 would surely go a long way to addressing disparities in subject choice, attainment and the number of qualifications at the end of S4 for pupils as well as teacher retention. A 2019 SPICe survey of pupils showed that more than half were unable to study all of their preferred subjects – most frequently at Higher level – due mostly to timetable clashes, the subject not being offered or staff shortages. The fiasco of this year’s exam results, with the SQArevising down the predicted grades of poorer students to a greater degree than those of their more affluent peers, further reveals the extent to which inequality is embedded in the system.
Underfunded councils face the burden of doing more with less, but the use of probationers to cut costs – with some schools being allocated them in the same subjects in successive years – only increases the precariousness of the jobs market for all concerned and must be addressed. While stability should be a pre-requisite in normal times, its absence will be unforgivable as we address the effects of COVID-19 on the education of our young people.
‘…to arrive where we started’
I am not suggesting I am owed a living. I am fully aware that I applied to a competitive subject. Typically, teaching offers better working conditions, salary and a quality of life than many other professions. What motivated me to apply to teacher training and return to Scotland was an ambition that has abided from an early age: to share my passion for history, help young people reach their potential and thereby progress social justice. I hope that having committed to teaching, a fair chance to teach – and for secondary teachers, to teach our subjects – is also extended to RQTs like myself.
Over-recruitment has led to under-employment and an insecure future for many. If the institutions responsible for Scottish education do not act to prevent the instability for staff, schools and pupils that their recruitment practices create, they are merely ordering more hydrogen for the Hindenburg.
Heather McLean says
Great blog! Here are some of my observations about the teaching situation. This new money provided by the Scottish Government for Covid Recovery – is for ONE year only!
The councils won’t give anyone permanent contracts with this money because they won’t have that money in their budget for next year!
They are reluctant to use it for more than the odd day here and there because they know full well that if they give regular long term work to someone that person would be within their rights to be made permanent!!
This is why they are hanging about not doing anything with the extra money – they are trying to figure out how they can best use it without committing themselves further down the line because they won’t have that money next year!!
Sorry to be blunt but that’s the reality of it!
The Scottish govt has a fixed amount of money – some of which is given to local authorities in the form of grant funding for Education / social work etc – the rest of local authority money comes from council tax, business rates on shops and offices etc
The councils have to budget that money and allocate the money for education – they can’t afford to keep taking on more and more permanent staff – I may be wrong ( and I’m trying to verify ) but I’m pretty sure the NQT years salary comes out of the Scottish Governments Education budget and therefor the local councils don’t have to pay for it.
The local council is more or less getting a “free teacher” which is why a lot of folk on the supply list can’t get permanent jobs – basically the councils can’t afford to keep employing new teachers year after year if no one is actually leaving the profession at the other end = retirement- and this will only get worse because of the raising of the pension age to 67 with no earlier access to superannuation!
Teachers with financial commitments will not be able to retire earlier any more! Meanwhile the universities get fees from the government for every student entering a course so they don’t have any incentive to halt BEd numbers – Universities are private business institutions and they’ll keep recruiting as many students as they can (unless Scotgov insist they halt) and those poor teaching grads are only guaranteed a years work at the end!
What a lot of folk don’t realise is that universities although they are education are actually private enterprises – they are not part of the state system and therefor they are competing to attract students and get as many of them over the door as they possibly can because the Scottish Government pays the fees for each student they get into the system .
It’s in a universities best interests financially to have as many students studying as possible because that’s how they make their money – it’s no longer their problem what happens to those students after graduation day.
And of course it’s in a lecturers interest to tell a student there will be a job for them because if they were completely honest that student might make different choices and the uni could lose money! Universities are educational establishments but they are also businesses!!
If all the younger “supply” teachers who want permanent contracts are ever to get a job the Scottish government has seriously got to look at recruitment to the profession which means getting universities to limit entry to BEd students and similarly the post grad qualification – Universities have to take some responsibility in this – great for them because they want more and more students but they’ve gone OTT and taken in far too many students – no offence or disrespect to anyone on here but as I keep saying there is no automatic expectation that you are guaranteed a job when you graduate in any other degree!
When I left college in 1978- I think only 5 people out of my year actually got jobs right away and they were the ones with “Distinction” – same in 1979 only ONE person got a job that year!! There was no such thing as a guaranteed NQT year then either!!
Even back in 1978 there was no coherent strategy for recruitment, deployment and retention and retirement of teachers so this has been an ongoing problem and not one uniquely laid at the door of Mr Swinney and the present Scottish government.
It’s my guess that whoever was in charge of the recruitment drive for teachers 4 /5 years ago failed to take into account the retirement age going up to 66/67 affecting women born in the 1950s ( WASPI) resulting in teachers having to stay in teaching longer!
I certainly hope they are taking this into consideration going forward otherwise we will have an even worse problem in future!
Believe me I wouldn’t be working on supply at all if I was in receipt of a state pension but as a single parent I have bills and a mortgage still outstanding and need to make up the money I’ve been cheated out of by the Westminster govt. Over the extra 6 years i am having to work I will have been cheated out of almost £48000!!
With the UK state retirement age going up to 67 and no longer the option of accessing Superannuation until retirement age, unless this situation is given serious consideration and a proper recruitment strategy worked out, this situation is set to get worse. Teachers will work longer and it will be more and more difficult for graduates to get jobs for longer than the initial guaranteed NQT year that is paid for, not by the council, but by the government.
It’s not anyone on here’s fault that we now find ourselves in this situation but governments and universities have continually and consistently got this wrong and we all pay the price!
The whole system is a shambles and needs a proper overhaul!
Roxanne McKenzie says
They need to look at a PGDE freeze for 2021-2022 on all but essential subjects, only training students in subjects with current teacher shortages. They can’t keep adding to an overflowing pot.
They also have to look at location as there is no point in training lots of teachers in a subject when the shortages of the recruits are in Aberdeen, Dundee or the Highlands are the recruits are not willing or able to locate there. In those cases it would have to be a ‘tick that you would accept one of the following councils’. It seems u fair to do that but more unfair to be left with no chance of employment after training.
Heather McLean says
Good point – a lot of people do the PGDE as a fall back and the guarantee of a years employment as an NQT, they do need to restrict this option to subjects where there is a shortage.
When I graduated in 1978 there were no jobs – as I mentioned only 5 people in my year got jobs on graduation. I eventually got a permanent job but had to move 120miles away from home – today’s graduates don’t seem to want to make that effort and expect jobs on their doorstep, the guarantee of employment for the NQT year reinforces this idea.
Your idea that graduates would have to be willing to relocate to where teachers are actually required is a good one.
Mary Dalrymple says
A parent recently wrote a letter (I think it was Arisaig or Ardnamruchan) about the lack of teachers. May I offer my view on this. Go on to any property website then look for a job for what might be your partner – if let’s say you decided to move to those places with a family. There are no smaller flats just large expensive properties or those requiring significant investment to improve. There is almost no public transport in rural areas so you must have a reliable car. Then there s the fact that getting a house requires two salaries. There are few jobs above minimum wage in The Highlands that’s why those retirees with property capital choose to move there and no one else could even if they wanted to. Aberdeen is desperate for teachers but again look at the rents and house prices in Aberdeen. Some of these authorities need to acknowledge that by making these places attractive and affordable to live in.
Mary Dalrymple says
Bingo. Many excellent points made here. However I would also add to your point ‘teachers enjoy better pay and working conditions than many others.’ With whom are you comparing teachers? To become a teacher now often requires a sixth year in school, an Honours degree and a PGDE/ PGCE. That’s years of study, acquisition of debt and years spent not ‘earning.’ When I was 25 I was just beginning to ‘get on my feet.’ I met several people from my class in school who had left at 16. At 25 they had a car and a home. At 40 years of age I have a one bedroom flat. Many working class ‘graduates’ take years to catch up with their peer group and some never do. If you are comparing a job which requires years to train with poorly paid jobs then that is a poor comparison. Also, many teachers are working with no contract, in effect zero hours. I haven’t had a single contract in over four years. I am usually dismissed by a Headteacher with two days notice. I am excluded from CPD, lesson observations and PRD (which according to the GTC supply teachers are supposed to be fully part of) and so therefore because NQTs are part of sustained CPD I am further disadvantaged. I am further disadvantaged as a woman because the male SMT make it clear they love young newbies and this applies particularly to women. But there is no misogyny or sexism in schools because Senior Leaders (one must capitalise this) are paragons of equality🤥 The SNP didn’t even tell the supply teachers there would be no work – get yourself to the job centre pronto and apply for Universal Credit. No they left us hanging and waiting around for phone calls. Several councils also oblige supply teachers to pay for their own police checks. (£80 per local authority M’Lud) I am sitting at home with no no money coming in despite getting the best Higher results in my last school. (Yawn moany upstart teacher just not dynamic enough) Friends are trying to make me take jobs in far away places where I have no home, no family and no friends and I am just in a horrific state at how badly I have been treated. Our unions do nothing as they never do and certainly not for female staff. All the EIS fat cats sit in their offices Larry Flanagan on over 90k. I’d have been better off leaving school at 16 to become a hairdresser as now I’d probably have a house and a reasonable income. I am never voting SNP again. I live in the unposh sector of my neighnourhood – in the posh sector its full of plasterer and joiners vans outside the big houses. I would advise young people not to go to University unless it is for medicine, dentistry or something similar. It’s not worth it. If you have a family that are financially backing you up and helping you with deposits fine but University is not for the working class because it won’t end well.
Jill says
I am going to have to leave teaching over this if I can’t get something by Christmas. I really did not expect to be crying nearly every evening over my financial and employment situation after 6 years of study and 3 years as a successful classroom teacher. Now I find myself “working” supply and barely getting any hours at all while failing to secure a full time position because it seems like there is always a better candidate who knows the school. My classroom confidence has plummeted and that is definitely coming across in interviews that I feel like I have failed in before they even begin. I can’t afford rent, I’m terrified of not making my NI contributions, and any idea of getting a mortgage or starting a family is ludicrous from my current situation. I know teaching is more than a job, I trained to be a teacher because I enjoy teaching and working with children but i can’t dedicate my life to doing that if I can’t afford to live.