Efforts to tackle teacher shortages in Angus have been defended by the Scottish Government.
In the last three months, Angus Council has advertised 28 job vacancies in its primary and secondary schools.
These figures come in the wake of the local authority trying to fill 21 vacancies in its secondary schools alone as pupils returned to their desks after the summer break last year
Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills said there had been a “steady increase” in the number of teachers in Scotland’s schools over the last two years.
He said there are more than 800 additional teachers compared to when he took office in 2016 and teacher numbers now top 51,500, the highest since 2011.
He said: “We have also got a big intake into initial teacher education and I am looking forward to seeing the fruits of that within our schools.
“Quite clearly I understand there are challenges in filling all vacancies in all circumstances but we are seeing an increasing number of teachers being recruited into our schools and that is a welcome part of our agenda.”
In the last three months, Angus Council has advertised teaching 28 jobs on myjobscotland – the national online jobs portal for Scotland’s 32 councils.
From October 27 to the end of last year, 18 jobs were posted online, with eight new jobs posted up to January 16.
Mr Swinney said: “There will, from time to time, always be teaching vacancies.
“There will also be new posts created because of the investment we are making, particularly through pupil equity funding, which is putting resources directly into schools where schools are able to choose how they can use those resources to enhance the education of young people.
“That funding stream alone has created over 600 of the 800 new teaching posts that have been created.
“There will be the creation of new teaching posts and there will be demand to fill those, that will be a habitual part of the education system.”
The Courier highlighted staff shortages facing Angus Council in September with 21 full time equivalent secondary posts needing filled.
The crisis prompted Mr Dempsey to call on Angus Council to take a more innovative approach to attract teachers to the area, arguing other councils had been “more creative” at trying to solve the issue by offering probationers additional payments and help with housing.
He said Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils all faced similar, if not more acute problems ,but they were more creative in their pursuit of recruiting secondary teachers.
Commenting on the current situation in Angus a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Although teacher recruitment is a matter for local authorities, we recognise some areas have faced challenges filling vacancies.
“This is why we have invested £88 million in 2017, resulting in 543 more teachers than the previous year – the second year in a row that there’s been an increase in teacher numbers. In Angus, the number of school teachers increased to 1,133 in 2017- up eight on the year before.
“We have taken decisive action to help recruit and retain teachers through our Teaching Makes People campaign, focussing specifically on attracting new teachers and career changers into STEM and other subjects.”
An Angus Council spokesman said there were currently 3.6 unfilled primary posts and ten secondary school positions.
He said: “We have adapted approaches to teacher recruitment to address the national issue of teacher vacancies and shortages in particular areas.”
He listed a number of achievements, including tactical over-recruiting of primary teachers, a ‘grow our own’ approach to primary teachers in partnership with Aberdeen and Dundee Universities which resulted in the appointment of seven primary teachers, and a further six Angus council employees beginning such training.
He added: “Angus Council is working in partnership with the University of Dundee to ‘grow our own’ secondary teachers and two council employees are being supported to begin teacher training in the STEM subjects.
An ‘Angus Offer’ was also being developed to attract more teachers into the profession, including incentives such as a golden ‘hello’ payment linked to contractual commitment and support with housing, transport and personal childcare costs.
