The Scottish Parent Teacher Council, which represents almost 2,000 local parent councils and associations, has urged Holyrood to take an urgent overview of what it describes as an “untenable situation”.
“Local authorities are finding it difficult to recruit teachers and school leaders, both on supply and permanent/contract. On the other hand … 70 per cent of new teachers are yet to find a permanent post,” Eileen Prior, executive director of the SPTC wrote in a letter to Michael Russell.
“It seems the two facts are contradictory and irreconcilable: from our perspective it appears that there is something fundamentally dysfunctional in our system.”
She said research from local authority and professional association contacts around Scotland had shown a shortage of supply teachers so acute schools have had to: bring back retired teachers, deploy headteachers and deputies as cover, and in some cases team teach or hold extended assembly-type activities.
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