Despairing headteachers have “lost faith” in a struggling scheme aimed at bringing newly qualified staff to Aberdeenshire secondary schools.
Director of education Laurence Findlay made the stark revelation while discussing Aberdeenshire Council’s experience with the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS), which had been hoped to fill vacancies.
And he admitted the ongoing trouble recruiting secondary subject teachers is reaching “crisis point”.
Across the region, there is a particular shortage of teachers for English, science, technical, maths and home economics.
The issues were brought up as members of the education and children’s services committee discussed an annual report on staffing.
Education director ‘hopeful’ of more more probationers
In the last school year, Aberdeenshire Council made a request for 65 secondary probationers to help fill gaps at schools.
But only 18 were allocated.
And this number dwindled to just 12 after some decided to drop out.
In December Mr Findlay, council leader Gillian Owen and education committee chairman David Keating met with Cabinet Secretary for Education Jenny Gilruth to raise the problem.
During the “positive” meeting it was agreed that some changes would be made this year.
‘Heads are losing faith’
Mr Findlay hopes that this will lead to a “fairer share” of secondary teachers being placed in Aberdeenshire schools for August compared to this year.
The glimmer of hope comes as school leaders begin to “lose faith”.
He said: “Sadly, some of our secondary head teachers have lost faith in the teacher induction scheme due to recent experience.
“But we have been encouraging them to make requests for newly qualified teachers in the hope that this will result in more probationers being placed.”
This year, Aberdeenshire Council has requested allocation for 44 probational teachers and they are hopeful to meet this figure.
Cabinet secretary ‘aware’ of rural staffing challenges
Mr Findlay told the committee that the council is in “regular dialogue” with the cabinet secretary and her team.
Aberdeenshire’s school parent councils have written to the cabinet secretary to raise their own concerns about staffing levels too.
Since the meeting late last year, Ms Gilruth has offered to visit the region but a date is still to be decided.
She has also agreed to hold an in-person meeting with worried parents.
Mr Findlay added: “Having previously been a teacher in Moray once upon a time, she’s very much aware of the of the challenges being faced in rural Scotland.”
However, he confirmed that teacher numbers in primary schools continue to be stable.
Secondary teaching posts left unfilled
Meanwhile, the council is continuing to struggle with a high number of advertised teaching posts not being filled.
Teaching numbers across the region were lower in September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
In some cases, not having enough staff in secondary schools leads to some subjects being removed from the curriculum.
Latest figures for January 2024 revealed that 36 posts were advertised for secondary teaching posts, but none of these were filled.
The council has said it will continue to work closely with partners at Aberdeen University to look at what can be done locally to support initial teacher education.
It also hopes to be able to retain probationers who successfully complete their probationary posts in Aberdeenshire.
Teacher shortages leading to ‘inconsistent teaching’
Banchory Academy teacher Billy Bilsland was thankful for the efforts that have been made to push for secondary teachers and more TIS allocation.
He told the meeting: “I think the induction scheme overall has been a hugely positive thing for teachers and bringing new teachers on, we wouldn’t want to see any risk to that.
“The impact of those shortages is huge on teachers’ time to take up the slack and more importantly on pupils and inconsistent teaching.
“We are getting to the point where school curricular models are being decided on staffing shortages rather than learning and teaching.”
Conversation