Question reference: S6W-01800
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 22 July 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 30 July 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many school teachers are on temporary contracts, and how this compares with each of the last three academic years.
Answer
The annual teacher census collects information on the basis of teaching posts, not people. Some teachers hold multiple posts which may mean the information held does not represent the nature of an individual teacher’s employment contract or the overall working pattern of that teacher.
Employment type in the following table relates to each post that a teacher holds, rather than their employment contract. This means that a teacher may have a permanent employment contract with the local authority but be recorded with a temporary employment type for an individual post.
Full-time equivalent number of teachers in temporary posts, 2017-2020 | ||||
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
Temporary
| 5,570 | 5,563 | 5,556 | 6,259 |
Induction Scheme Probationers | 2,888 | 2,821 | 3,037 | 3,118 |
All employment types | 50,592 | 51,138 | 51,449 | 52,672 |
Included teachers from all sectors in schools (primary, secondary, special schools and centrally employed) but does not include early years teachers.