Education Secretary John Swinney yesterday announced £3million of funding to train hundreds of new teachers.
The deputy first minister announced the boost while giving the keynote speech at the Aberdeen Learning Festival, and said the cash will help increase places at universities throughout Scotland and allow for the training of an extra 371 teachers a year.
It means the number of university places will go up to a total of 3,861 at the start of the academic year.
But the Press and Journal can today reveal that across the north and north-east, councils are still battling to fill more than 200 vacancies – prompting claims the fund is a “token gesture”.
Up-to-date figures show that Aberdeen alone has 104 teaching places to fill, while Aberdeenshire Council has 59.
Moray, Highland and Orkney have 25, 11 and two respectively.
Aberdeen University, one of the main training places for the profession, has more than 750 people currently training in teaching in some capacity.
Last night, Aberdeen City Council’s education convener Angela Taylor said: “Whilst we welcome any additional money that the Scottish Government are offering to help to train new teachers, the simple fact is that the SNP like to make announcements however, their record shows that over the last 10 years shows Scotland has lost 4,129 teachers.”
North-east conservative MSP Ross Thomson, and city councillor, added: “You have to question what £3million is going to get you for the whole of Scotland. This seems like a token gesture.”
There have been historic challenges in bringing teachers to the north and north-east, partly due to the rural nature of the former and the high cost of living – and the previously lucrative oil wages – of the latter.
The announcement comes less than a week after the launch of the Scottish Government’s new teacher recruitment campaign which focuses on attracting teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects.
Mr Swinney said that former oil workers hit by the downturn in the sector should also consider a career in teaching.
He said: “I recognise that some councils have faced challenges with teacher recruitment. Today’s announcement is a further demonstration of the action this government is taking to help them attract more people into teaching and widen the pool of available talent.
“I think the issue is about the recruitment and identification of teachers. Local authorities in the north-east of Scotland have benefited from significant distribution of pupil equity funding and they’ve also benefited from the additional £160million that was agreed at the final stage of the budget process in parliament.
“All of these measures have been undertaken to strengthen the financial position but I do acknowledge that there are challenges to recruiting teachers. It is not a question of money but of the availability of teachers.”