SCOTLAND’S biggest teaching union has demanded action from Holyrood on the lack of job security among newly qualified teachers.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) warned more new educators are being employed on short-term, temporary contracts, pushing many out of the profession early and creating “serious implications” for the country’s schools. 

In a letter to SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf, union general secretary Andrea Bradley stressed the personal and professional lives of thousands of teachers are “in turmoil as a result of the lack of job security many were led to believe they would have by entering the teaching profession.”

Ms Bradley said she appreciated the concern shown by Nicola Sturgeon’s successor when EIS first raised the issue in June, but she warned that the union has become “increasingly concerned as more and more members have contacted EIS over the summer months in desperation at the prospect of no work” this autumn. 

She praised the commitment of new teachers, who achieve their qualification via “significant personal sacrifice and expense through the successful completion of a rigorous probationary year and through the achievement of an exacting suite of professional standards.”

The letter adds: “In embarking on such a path, many will have done so in direct response to the Scottish government’s own recruitment campaigns, which rightly sought to bring more graduates into the profession.

“Regrettably for the thousands of teachers who undertook their [training] courses in good faith, the long-term staffing strategy for education has not served them well.

“Not only does this situation negatively impact the lives and wellbeing of thousands of teachers, EIS believes that it falls short of delivering the quality of education that young people in Scotland should have.”