Education and Lifelong Learning – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:15 pm on 13 September 2007.
To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers were employed in Scottish education on 31 August 2007. (S3O-559)
The 2006 teacher census showed that there were 51,659 class-based teachers in primary, secondary and special schools, 1,666 pre-school teachers and another 1,160 visiting specialist teachers. Figures for the 2007 census will be collected this month and will be published in March.
I thank the minister for that answer and for confirming that Labour's manifesto commitment on the number of teachers in Scotland has been met and, indeed, exceeded. I invite her to tell us how many teachers are needed to fulfil her party's manifesto commitment to cut class sizes, and to indicate the cost of meeting that commitment, and when it will be met.
As was mentioned during this morning's education debate, we will give those answers once the comprehensive spending review has told us how much money is available. Clearly, the fact that we have already introduced another 300 teachers and 250 training posts into the system will ensure that we go some way to meeting that commitment.
That simply will not do. We might need to wait for the comprehensive spending review to find out what resources can be applied to the issue, but the minister ought to be able to tell the Parliament how many teachers will be required. I presume that she has made a bid to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth to enable her to meet the commitments that have been made. If she cannot give us those figures, will she explain in some detail why not?
Of course we have made a bid to meet those commitments. We will wait to find out what resources are available from the comprehensive spending review.
The minister will know that, over the years, the Labour Fife Council axed teachers' jobs to save money. I raised the issue on many occasions before the May election. Will she therefore accept my thanks for and congratulations on the provision of 20 additional teachers in Fife, five of whom will serve the Levenmouth area of my constituency? If Patricia Ferguson does not want extra teachers in her constituency, I will take as many as she can give us.
I thank the member for pointing out that Fife Council, like a number of other councils, is happy with the extra commitment that we have given on teacher numbers. Over the summer, I visited 11 local authorities, all of which, to a man and a woman, were highly supportive of our work in adding teachers to the system and in concentrating on primary 1 to primary 3.
The 300 extra teaching places are welcome, but does the minister not accept that too many of this year's probationers have serious anxieties about their employment prospects and their future in the teaching profession? Does she not also accept that, given that more than half of all probationers are over the age of 30, many of them are unable to move around the country to find jobs? Will she agree to work with local authorities and others to address those issues, so that confidence in our teacher training system is not eroded through lack of Government action? Such a commitment will not necessarily require any funding.
The member can be assured that we will continue to work with local authorities. No Government trains teachers for the dole queue. Members of the 2007 cohort of about 3,350 probationers are able to apply for posts, and around 3,000 of them are already in post. Over the past month or so, more than 600 posts have been advertised. Given that we know that we must train teachers for the whole of the year, we believe that almost all those teachers will be in post. There are many jobs out there, including supply posts. We do not want teachers to have the worry that other graduates have of not finding a post as soon as they finish their courses, but we believe that, in the light of the additional posts that we have announced, there will be a balance between the number of people who are trained and the number of posts that are available.
Like Ken Macintosh, I have been contacted by several constituents who are teachers who highlighted to me the increasingly acute problems that they encounter when seeking suitable posts in schools during and following their probationary years. For example, one lady told me of a post for which she applied that attracted 250 applicants.
What discussions has the minister had with the education agencies to ensure that the correct balance is struck between the number of newly qualified teachers and the number of posts that are available to be filled? What steps is the Government taking to ease the problem?
As I said, we are in on-going discussions with local authorities on that matter. We are also in discussions with the higher education establishments that provide teacher training to ensure that there are sufficient teachers to fill the posts that must be filled throughout Scotland.