9 Mar 2018
The Scottish Government has released figures showing that the number of secondary school teachers with a main subject has plummeted by over eleven per cent in the last ten years.
New figures published by the Scottish Government taken from the Teacher Census 2017 show that teacher numbers who teach in a main subject have dropped from 24,418 in 2008 to 21,707 in 2017, a loss of 2,711.
While secondary school teacher numbers have risen slightly over the last two years, these figures highlight a decade of decline under the SNP.
Most worryingly, english teachers have dropped almost 20 per cent, maths teachers have dropped 15 per cent and general science teachers have dropped 11 per cent.
Lastly, most modern language teachers have also seen massive drops, for example, french teachers have dropped by 32 percent and german teachers have dropped by 44 per cent.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith MSP said:
“The SNP’s empty promises on increasing teacher numbers have been laid bare as specialist secondary school teacher numbers continue to plummet.
“It is obvious that teachers are the most important resource in any school and so it is clear that this substantial decline in numbers will have a significantly negative effect on the level of education school children receive.
“Despite the SNP claiming the teacher shortage is diminishing because of extra recruits taken in in recent months, these statistics show the number of teachers is still dramatically lower than in 2008.
“We all know that the confusion and chaos during the SNP’s implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence has driven many teachers away.
“This is further evidence that a generation of school children is being badly let down by the SNP.”
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