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Scotland’s Number Of Teachers Are Reduced By 1,000
Posted by | Posted in Teachers | Posted on 30-03-2009
In Scotland, publicly funded schoolteachers are reducing by 1,000 this year, according to the Scotland Government.
In 2008, there were 53,584 teachers working at pre-school, primary, secondary, and special schools or visiting specialist. This number is 975 fewer as compared to the number of teachers in 2007. However, the numbers of pupils are also falling making the 13:1 child-to-teacher ratio remains the same.
Because of the current situation, opposition parties wanted Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop to be kicked out.
According to the Scottish Government, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and Aberdeen authorities are the ones responsible for more than half of the fall. In addition, the government will take action to discuss the said issue.
The council umbrella group Cosla is doubtful about the accuracy of the figures and wanted to do further clarification before a policy decision will take place.
According to Ms Hyslop, their first priority is to make sure that there were enough teachers in the system. She further stated that the figures show that, the teacher’s numbers are dealing with the historic low pupil-teacher ratio in Scotland, both in primary and secondary, which is already on its second year in a row right now.
The pupil-teacher ratio in Scotland is the lowest in the UK, as well as the primary class sizes, which is also at a record low in Scotland.
Concerning the primary and secondary schools, the numbers of teachers for both levels were also higher except for 2006.
Research shows that mostly of the incident happens in September 2008, wherein the number of secondary teachers dropped from 26,251 in 2007 to 25,767 last year. The primary teachers on the other hand were down by 381 over the same period.
With what had happen, the education secretary Ms Fiona Hyslop had received numerous criticisms from different parties.
According to the general secretary of EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, Ronnie Smith, since 2004, the number of teacher working in schools right now is at its lowest. He further said that the pupil to teacher ratio remain unchanged, which emphasizes that the Scottish Government’s strategy of depending on falling pupil numbers and holding teacher numbers to lower class sizes is not working.
According to Rhona Brankin of Labour, it is now time for the secretary to go. Ms Brankin further said that, with Scotland’s lowering number of teachers in the past 12 months, which is under Fiona Hyslop’s watch was a total disgrace.
Lib Dem Spokesman Ms Margareth Smith said that, it is now time to have a new minister and not new excuses.
Ms Liz Smith, the spokesperson of Conservative education said that this issue is a very painful message to thousands of newly qualified teachers. It is now hard for them to find jobs.
Now, councils were going to make undesirable choices according to Cosla education spokesperson Ms Isabel Hutton. This is because of some budgetary pressures that are already beyond their control. She further said that it would be wrong to immediately conclude or criticize the headline figures.
