The Liberal Democrats have urged the Scottish government to fix what the party describes as a “crisis” shortage of teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects, after new figures underlined the scale of the problem.
Analysis of national data by the party reveals that, compared with 2008 - the year after the SNP came to power - there are fewer teachers in subjects including maths (down by 363 teachers), computing studies (down 216), technical education (down 180) and physics (down 91). In the past year alone, 78 teachers were lost across maths, physics and computing studies.
Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokesperson, is pushing the government to “introduce more incentives” to attract teachers into the subjects to tackle a “vicious cycle” whereby the shortage of teachers “diminishes the skills of future generations and undermines teacher recruitment for years to come”.
More Stem teachers needed
“Salaries outside teaching, including in industry, are much higher - and without the stress of managing classes”, said Mr Rennie, adding that a “concerted effort” across local and central government is required to tackle the issue.
The Lib Dem analysis follows the publication of statistics last week showing that the number of post-probation teachers finding full-time permanent contracts has fallen by more than half in the past seven years: some 56.5 per cent found full-time employment in 2016-17 but just 24.9 per cent did so in 2023-24.
Mr Rennie said Stem teachers are vital for the future of sectors key to Scotland’s economy in the years to come, such as defence and artificial intelligence.
He warned that “pupils are going to miss out on hundreds of teachers, desperately needed to inspire them, lift attainment and propel them on towards high-skill, high-pay jobs”.
Increase in biology and chemistry teachers
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of teaching staff. The Scottish government will continue to support them to maximise the number of jobs available in certain subjects, including Stem. Since 2008, there have been increases in the number of teachers in biology and chemistry.”
The spokesperson added: “Our teaching bursary scheme provides a £20,000 payment to career changers who are looking to undertake graduate teacher training in hard-to-fill subjects - including physics, maths, technical education and computing science.
“The Scottish government is also providing local authorities £186.5 million this year as part of an agreement with [local authorities body] Cosla to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels, as well as freezing learning hours and making meaningful progress on reducing class-contact time.”
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