Aberdeenshire Council faces having a shortage of teachers next year with one in four probationary positions due to go empty.
Newly qualified teachers have a choice of where to do their year of probationary service before gaining their full registration.
However, Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett has reported that only 18 out of the 66 secondary school positions in the area have been filled.
The Scottish Conservative has called on the Scottish Government to do more to promote the north-east as an attractive teaching destination.
However, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth says she “cannot direct” teachers to work in a particular region.
Where will the Aberdeenshire probationary teaching gaps be?
Mr Burnett says the shortage has been felt most in the metalwork and woodwork areas in secondary schools, with none due to start in Aberdeenshire after the summer holidays.
It means the Gordon Schools in Huntly has had to drop the subjects from its curriculum due to not having enough teachers in the subject area.
The Aberdeenshire MSP says the Scottish Government has to analyse why enough graduates are not considering the region to build their career.
Mr Burnett said: “It’s not good enough to merely tell Aberdeenshire Council to dig deeper in education budgets to get teachers in post. Staff budgets are tight and there is nowhere feasible to get that money from.
“The Scottish Government is ultimately responsible for making sure pupils across Scotland get the right number of staff and mix of subjects to give them the best education possible.
“Jenny Gilruth should be doing some analysis as to what is happening during induction now, and whether more needs to be done to highlight Aberdeenshire as an excellent start to any teaching career – we have many excellent schools to back that up.”
What is the Scottish Government doing to help teacher numbers in Aberdeenshire?
Probationary teachers choose their five favourite local authority areas to spend their training year in order of preference before being assigned to a school.
However, they can receive an extra payment of up to £8,000 if they say they are willing to complete their probationary period anywhere in Scotland.
In a written response, Education Secretary Ms Gilruth told Mr Burnett she recognises there are issues with recruitment in some areas.
She added: “Probationary teachers are allocated places on the teacher induction scheme based on their subject and their ranked preference of five local authority areas.
“An insufficient number of probationary teachers chose Aberdeenshire Council for their probationary year and, therefore, Aberdeenshire Council did not receive the number of probationary secondary teachers that they requested.
“Whist we recognise there is a challenge around the recruitment of teachers in certain geographical areas and in certain subjects, we cannot direct teachers where to undertake their probation or where to work.”
Aberdeenshire Council has been contacted to comment.
Aberdeenshire teaching job advertised 11 times in recruitment crisis
