Aberdeen’s SNP group have been accused of “turning a blind eye” to the city’s teacher recruitment crisis after a row broke out over whether it was a “special case”.
Last week, the Press and Journal reported that Aberdeen City Council currently has 134 empty teaching positions – twice as many as eight months ago.
Council leader Jenny Laing wrote to education secretary John Swinney highlighting the difficulties and asking for a combined approach to tackling the crisis.
Yesterday, the council’s education committee were asked to support the sending of the letter.
This read: “Clearly, this is an issue for local authorities across the country, but we feel that, because of the higher than average cost of living in the city, plus the knock-on effect of the oil and gas downturn, Aberdeen is a ‘special case’.”
However, the seven nationalist members on the committee said they couldn’t support the inclusion of this paragraph, arguing it was a “Scotland-wide problem”.
In recent years, the local authority has offered incentives to attract more teachers to the Granite City, including “golden hellos” of up to £5,000 and assistance with accommodation.
SNP education spokesman Alex Nicoll said: “I suppose it is no surprise that the administration has tried to politicise this committee by asking members to support this.
“The recruitment of teachers is currently a problem around Scotland.”
But they were met with a furious reaction from the other parties in the chamber
Ms Laing said: “The SNP group in Aberdeen have a slavish devotion to their central party.
“Because they didn’t get a chance to run this past their superiors in the Scottish Parliament, they have come forward with their most ridiculous proposal yet.”
Liberal Democrat Jennifer Stewart said she was “dumbfounded, puzzled and perplexed” as to the reaction adding that
“Mr Swinney should put his hand in his pocket”.
The SNP amendment was defeated by 15 votes to seven.
Speaking after the meeting, SNP group leader Stephen Flynn said: “We were not being asked our views on whether there was a problem in itself.
“Rather, we were being asked to retrospectively endorse a letter calling for a meeting between councillor Laing and John Swinney in order to help resolve the situation.
“Given the contempt which councillor Laing continually displays towards the Scottish Government, I can’t endorse her call as I simply don’t have reason to believe she’ll seek to achieve anything other than political point-scoring.
“As leader of the opposition, I’ve every faith the Scottish Government is fully committed to educational improvement, including boosting teacher numbers and raising attainment.”
