Teaching fund a step in right direction, but more needed
14 Feb 2017
The announcement of a new teacher-training fund is a step in the right direction, the Scottish Conservatives have said, but more needs to be done.
The Scottish Government’s investment for new teachers has been welcomed by shadow education secretary Liz Smith, but she warned it would not make up for a decade of educational neglect.
Just one of the many issues local authorities have faced under SNP leadership is the recruitment process for schools and maintaining the services of specialist teachers.
Figures have shown that schools have struggled over the years to attract the necessary number of teachers, with some councils even being forced to offer financial incentives.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said:
“This will be welcome news for Scotland’s teaching profession which has had to bear the full brunt of the SNP’s successive cuts to teacher numbers since 2007.
“It has been abundantly clear for some time that Scotland has too few professionally trained teachers particularly in some core subject areas and we know that several local authorities have found it impossible to fill key vacancies with the obvious costs to education in the classroom.
“The key test is not only the provision of more teacher training places but an improvement in the employment rates for newly qualified teachers.
“Scotland cannot afford to lose its talented pool of teacher trainees nor can it allow the SNP to fail again in its workforce planning.”
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