Scottish maths and English student teacher numbers fall

New figures show that English and maths are struggling to attract student teachers in Scotland.

As reported by Tes, in 2017-2018, maths recruited 112 students, which is 47 per cent of the Scottish Funding Council target of 327.

English recruits are at 155 for the same period, which is 63 per cent of the target of 247.

Across all subjects, 30 per cent of places on PGDE courses, which is the most common route into secondary teaching in Scotland, have not been filled.

The figures also show that there were 816 vacant teacher posts in total across pre-school, primary and secondary sectors in September. This is up from 685 the previous year.

However, the Scottish government has said that there are hundreds more people training to be teachers following the introduction of a range of new routes, including a fast track route for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) graduates, into the profession.

Deputy first minister and education John Swinney said: “These new routes are designed to encourage people from a whole range of backgrounds to consider teaching as a profession and I am pleased to see the impact they are having on the number of student teachers.

“It is disappointing the targets set for some secondary subjects have not been met. However, alongside the £20,000 Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) bursaries I recently announced for career changers and the increased interest we have seen among undergraduates as a result of our recruitment campaign, we expect to see the number of people training as teachers continuing to rise.”