SNP MINISTERS are responsible for the “persistent underfunding” of education that has caused a crippling crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, NASUWT warns today

The Scottish government is also failing to tackle teachers’ “excessive workloads and serious violence and abuse from pupils,” the education union’s general secretary Dr Patrick Roach charged.

He spoke out as educators gathered in Aberdeen for NASUWT Scotland’s annual conference.

The event, which will be addressed by Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth today, comes in the wake of massive strike action that closed primaries and secondaries across Scotland before a new deal was reached on pay.

The package amounts to a 14.6 per cent wage increase for most teachers by next January, but as it is spread out over two years, it still represents a cut in take-home pay. 

Dr Roach said: “The Scottish government’s persistent underfunding of education, along with the failure to tackle excessive teacher workload, serious violence and abuse from pupils and the real-terms erosion of salaries, has led to crisis. 

“Ministers have failed to take the opportunity to put in place the positive and progressive measures which could have helped teachers develop their careers by making a teaching job more attractive and sustainable. 

“Without a recommitment from government and employers to these principles, schools are going to find it even tougher to recruit and retain the teachers needed to maintain our children’s education.”

Official figures reveal that otal educator numbers fell last year for the first time since 2016, while NASUWT analysis suggests only one of Scotland’s 32 councils offered more permanent contracts than temporary places to newly qualified teachers. 

A Scottish government spokesperson claimed that the country had “the highest teacher-per-pupil ratio compared to any other part of the UK.

“Education spend per pupil is higher than in England and Wales. In 2022-2023, the Scottish government spent over £8,500 per pupil, over 18 per cent or £1,300 higher than spending in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

“Ministers are committed to recruiting more teachers and support staff. Undoubtedly, the historic pay settlement reached earlier this year will go some way to achieving that aspiration.”

Further strikes have been avoided in Wales after unions accepted a much-improved offer from devolved Labour ministers, but an increasingly bitter dispute in England is set to rumble on after Downing Street’s latest below-inflation wage rise was overwhelmingly rejected.