Teachers need to relocate to where the jobs are, says Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth

The NASUWT teaching union said that cabinet secretary Jenny Gilruth was shifting the blame for a “dysfuncitonal teacher supply system” onto newly qualified teachers, rather than taking responsibility for it.

It comes after Scottish Government figures suggest most newly-qualified teachers in Scotland are not getting a permanent job - with the problem is particularly acute in primary schools.

Ms Gilruth also suggested primary school teachers should retrain as secondary school teachers if they want a job.

Her comments have been shunned by the NASUWT.

Mike Corbett, the union’s national official in Scotland, told The Scotsman: “The cabinet secretary appears to be shifting the onus for the dysfunctional teacher supply system onto newly qualified teachers, rather than taking responsibility for a system that is clearly failing teachers, pupils and the taxpayer.

“We have a situation where thousands of teachers are being trained at public expense for jobs that don’t exist, all the while those teachers who do have permanent posts are drowning in workload.

“The cabinet secretary and Cosla [the umbrella body for Scotland’s 32 local authorities] need to agree to work together at pace to meet commitments to increase teacher numbers and prevent a further waste of so much talent and potential from our school workforce.”

Ms Gilruth, who herself was a teacher before becoming a politician, said teachers need to be more open to moving to other parts of the country if they want a job.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast, she said: “When I qualified in 2008 I ticked the box to go anywhere and I got a job in Elgin.

“I moved to follow the work.

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“I’ve heard people [discussing] commuting distance and I think that reflects the number of people post-pandemic given jobs - I wonder to what extent they are opting not to travel to jobs.

“It’s always been the case that you are not guaranteed a job on the qualification, you have to go out and look for one and apply to a range of local authorities.

“I’ve spent a lot of time listening to teacher experiences, but it is not usual for folk to be sitting on supply for many years, and I know some are choosing to sit on supply because they are waiting for a job in a certain part of the country.”

In 2021 the SNP promised to hire 3,500 extra teachers and reduce teachers’ class contact time to 21 hours a week.

In 2024/25, 2,294 newly-qualified teachers completed their probation year, but only 568 (25 per cent) secured a permanent post.

Of the remaining 75 per cent, 1,015 are in temporary or fixed-term contracts, and 711 are in “other” roles such as supply teaching, or working in a completely different profession.

Nearly nine in 10 primary teachers are on temporary contracts, on supply, or without a permanent post.

However, Ms Gilruth said there is a "desperate" shortage of teachers in some specialities, for example secondary maths teachers.

She said: “We are looking at creative ways for primary teachers to retrain in secondary schools.

“That requires dual qualifications, and my officials are working on that.

“Where primary teachers have the right qualifications they can work in secondary schools and it is important they are supported to do it.”

According to data on myjobscotland, the most teacher vacancies appear to be in Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Aberdeen City, Highland and East Dunbartonshire - although many of these are not permanent contracts. However, there are vacancies listed across the entire country in both primary and secondary schools.

Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said there was a significant number of newly-qualified teachers “limping from one temporary contract to another”.

She said: “We receive regular correspondence from people in that situation in utter despair.

“They are unable to secure permanent jobs, it impacts on them financially but it also impacts on them emotionally and psychologically as well.

"It's really concerning the number of them who talk about having to leave the profession entirely because they cannot afford to live their lives in that insecure way.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said it is providing £186.5 million to local authorities in 2025/26 to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels and £28 for additional needs support.

Ms Gilruth’s comments have been criticised by opposition parties in Holyrood.

Miles Briggs MSP, the Scottish Conservatives’ education spokesman, said: “It’s absurd that Jenny Gilruth is trying to shift the blame for staff shortages onto teachers, when it’s the SNP that has broken its promise to increase teacher numbers.

“Schools in rural Scotland have been short-changed, but that’s because the nationalists’ funding cuts have made it harder for teachers to get permanent jobs.

“Many are leaving the profession as a result of the SNP’s failure to fund and support schools over the past two decades.”

Paul O’Kane MSP, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, said: “The education secretary seems to be blaming teachers for her own government’s failures.

“The SNP has completely bungled its workforce planning and thrown hundreds of fully qualified teachers on the scrapheap.

“Instead of demanding teachers uproot their lives and move across the country or learn an entirely new discipline, the SNP should get its own house in order.

“Once again we are seeing a total lack of leadership and abdication of responsibility from this SNP education secretary.”