Highland Council has slashed teacher vacancies from 65 to 36 in a year, new figures show.
The north’s performance is in line with other local authorities in the north and north east.
Bill Alexander, Highland Council’s director of Care and Learning, said: “We have half the number of vacancies we had at the start of the last year, which reflects dedicated and innovative work by our Workforce Planning Team and by Headteachers and community groups across the authority – I include community groups, as many of them have taken to social media to support our recruitment.
“This includes 13 Canadian colleagues, who are most welcome.”
The council has turned to young graduate teachers from Canada to fill 13 posts, and they’ll only be here for a year.
The Canadian teachers will have the appropriate work permits to stay for one academic year, and will then most likely return home.
The council has used recruitment agency Timeplan to find the teachers, who went through their induction alongside this year’s probationers last week.
The underlying problem remains though, with 19 vacancies for Highland posts currently on Timeplan’s website.
They range across all disciplines and age groups, from English and maths, to science, modern languages, history, business studies and home economics.
The council’s chairman of Care, Learning and Housing committee councillor Andrew Baxter said teacher vacancy figures are only a ‘snapshot in time’ and difficult to compare like with like.
He said: “There’s no doubt we do still have the challenges and the problems are symptomatic of trying to fill professional vacancies across the board as we’ve seen lately with radiographers and GPs.”
Mr Baxter said part of the difficulty lies with changing expectations in a new generation of professionals.
He said: “Whereas twenty years ago moving to the Highlands was a bit of a vocation, a change of way of life, but now what would have attracted those professionals isn’t as attractive today. It’s too remote, without enough opportunities for partners, and not enough facilities.
“Attitudes to what was an attractive way of life have changed.”
Last week, we told how a teacher had been recruited the Hebridean island of Muck after a Facebook campaign was launched by parents.
The hunt for a teacher on the small island was started after the previous incumbent quit less than two years after taking up the post.
A spokeswoman from the General Teaching Council said: “The recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland is a complex issue which requires targeted and coordinated action in a number of areas.
“We are currently involved in a wide range of work to alleviate teacher shortages and help recruit and retain teachers.
“This includes working with universities providing initial teacher education to develop new and innovative routes into the profession.
“GTC Scotland has also been looking at ways in which career changers and those nearing retirement in other professions might be attracted into teaching, and exploring the potential for courses offered in the college sector to contribute to widening access to the teaching profession.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “While teaching remains an attractive career in Scotland, we recognise some areas of the country face challenges filling vacancies. That is why we invested £88 million in 2017/18, resulting in 543 more teachers than the previous year.
“We have taken decisive action to recruit and retain more teachers through our Teaching Makes People campaign, while creating new routes into the profession. In addition, £20,000 bursaries are available for career changers to train in priority subjects.”
