Last Thursday there was a discussion in the Scottish Parliament that is entitled of Secondary School Teachers (Action on Numbers). The MSP that began the session is Jamie Green who is a member of the Scottish Conservatives. He opened the discussion with the question “To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the number of new secondary school teachers.” The Scottish Government member that responded is Jenny Gilruth and she responded to his question and he then asked another question which is below that includes a comment about STEM. There was also a question from an SNP member and then finally a question from Pam Duncan-Glancy who is a Labour member and she asked about STEM and also referred to the Institute of Engineering and Technology and Jenny responded at the end of the session. All of the text can be obtained from here and here are the specific questions and answers.

Jamie Green: The cabinet secretary must be disappointed that, last year, more than 800 vacancies went unfilled in our secondary schools. There is widespread concern about the lack of science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers, particularly in rural areas. The golden hello, which is aimed at addressing shortages of rural teachers, has reaped disappointingly low levels of interest and take-up. Why is the Government struggling to meet its own targets for recruiting into secondary schools? More important, what reassurances can the Government offer parents and pupils that they will not be facing reduced subject choice because there are simply not enough teachers available to teach certain subjects?

Jenny Gilruth: I recognise Jamie Greene’s interest in the area. I know that he has asked a number of written parliamentary questions recently. He mentioned the golden hello. I declare an interest, having ticked the box back in 2008 and gone to Elgin for a year to teach. The preference waiver payment provides probationary teachers with an additional payment, as the member has alluded to.

More broadly, there has been a change in relation to how people engage with the system. I held a round-table meeting with probationers just before parliamentary recess and heard from them a number of different approaches to how they regard their employment, with people perhaps being less likely to move than they might have been in the past. We need to recognise that challenge, particularly in relation to Jamie Greene’s points on specific subjects.

We have a teaching bursary scheme, which gives bursaries of up to £20,000 for career changers wishing to undertake a one-year postgraduate qualification in the hard-to-fill STEM subjects that Jamie Greene alluded to, including physics, maths, technical education, computing, science, chemistry and home economics. That scheme has been extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and at primary level.

It is worth my while to point out that, since December 2014, the number of schoolteachers in Scotland has increased by 8 per cent. However, I recognise that there are subject-specific challenges, particularly in secondary schools. I have commissioned the strategic board for teacher education to look at the issue in further detail and to provide me with greater advice on how we can support the challenge.

Pam Duncan-Glancy: The Institution of Engineering and Technology has highlighted some of the problems that it is seeing in finding STEM teachers. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s comments about bursaries. However, in that organisation’s report, it asked for a review of those bursaries, because they are not attracting people who work in STEM sectors to change careers and go into teaching. What more can the cabinet secretary do to attract those people into teaching?

Jenny Gilruth: Pam Duncan-Glancy raises an important point. She has touched on some of the additionality that we have provided, which I outlined in my response to Jamie Greene. There have been historical challenges in a number of different subjects over a number of years. For example, there are gender divides in the teaching of physics and maths, and we need to be cognisant of that and encourage more women into the teaching of those subjects and more generally.

I am more than happy to meet Pam Duncan-Glancy to talk about opportunities in this regard. Although I will not commit to a review while on my feet today, I am more than happy to look at the issue in a bit more detail. In our secondary school recruitment process specifically, there are gaps in certain subject areas, and we need to be cognisant that different action will be needed to respond to those challenges accordingly.