A staffing ‘crisis’ in Fife schools has been revealed as seven maths teacher posts and 10 craft, design and technology teacher posts are advertised, says a union rep.
The level of vacancies – currently on Fife Council’s website – is ‘extraordinary’ says Graeme Keir, Fife rep for teaching union, the EIS.
He says many head teachers have already had to recruit primary teachers to teach numeracy instead of maths in the early years of secondary school.
And that head teachers are also relying on physics and computing teachers and senior management to cover maths lessons.
Some are also trying to re-allocate budgets to offer principal teacher roles to maths teachers, says Graeme.
Maths and CDT are both key STEM subjects which are seen as strategic curriculum areas in developing Scotland’s economy.
Steps must be taken to save maths
Graeme said: “It’s important that we address this issue now as head teachers may have to adjust their timetables in the coming years to offer less maths.
“This comes as a University of Stirling report warned last week of the narrowing of the curriculum over the last 10 years.
“We’ve already seen a major decline in subjects such as modern languages and home economics. Urgent attention must be paid if we are not to lose the skills of maths teachers.”
Graeme believes the solution lies in raising teachers’ pay and urgently addressing terms and conditions.
Fife Council said there was a national shortage of maths and CDT teachers for a ‘few years now’ and ‘Fife is no different’.
However, for comparison, Dundee and Angus councils are advertising one maths teacher post each and none for CDT teachers.
Perth and Kinross Council has no subject specific teacher job adverts but is looking for ‘secondary teachers at various locations’, so it is unclear how many vacancies it has in these subjects.
Active recruitment in Fife
Shelagh McLean, head of education service at Fife Council, said: “We’re actively recruiting teachers, taking every opportunity to advertise positions and attract more teachers to Fife.
“The number of vacancies is higher than we would normally expect, reflecting the national position, but we are doing all we can to fill vacancies.
Fife’s a great place to live and work.”
Shelagh McLean
“We’ve got a good induction and professional development programme for our teachers and Fife’s a great place to live and work with lots of vibrant schools in varied communities, offering rewarding experiences for teachers.
“I hope that anyone either starting out on their career or perhaps looking for a change will consider coming here to work with our young people.”
Shelagh said in the meantime head teachers are timetabling staff in accordance with skills, knowledge and expertise, and in relation to the subjects they are qualified to teach.
She said: “The broad general education goes up to S3 and primary teachers are therefore well placed to support the development of literacy and numeracy up to that age.”
