Question reference: S6W-26788
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 9 April 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address the reported failure to reach target student teacher intake numbers in 19 out of 20 subjects.
Answer
This relates to indicative figures provided by universities at the start of the academic session. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) will publish the 2023-24 academic year Official Statistics data in 2025. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into modern language Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.
This information is informing the work of Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail together with work to improving the promotion of teaching as a valued career.
Both the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council have offered to work with universities to develop alternative routes into subjects which have traditionally been difficult to recruit to.
Our Teaching Bursary Scheme is offering a £20,000 payment to career changers who are looking to undertake teacher training in hard to fill STEM subjects – physics, maths, technical education, computing science, chemistry and home economics. The scheme was also extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.