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Even before the pandemic, vacancies were being advertised by schools only to be withdrawn after the appointment of a probationer, whose annual salary of £27,498 offers a substantial saving on a qualified teacher’s minimum salary of £32,994.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.
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