The education secretary has been advised that teachers should be barred from changing jobs during term time, to reduce the risk of “prolonged shortages”.
The advice - revealed through a TESS Freedom of Information request - was given to John Swinney by his “teacher panel”, set up last year to discuss developments in Scottish education and to assess ways to reduce teachers’ workload.
There’s no doubt that it’s a disadvantage to pupils if their teacher leaves halfway through a term and the school has to bring somebody else in; there is going to be disruption
The 17-strong panel - which controversially consists mainly of headteachers and deputes - hoped that the recommendation would help to tackle the problem of staff shortages, which it named as one of four main areas of concern.
More than 1,100 teaching posts were unfilled in Scottish schools last September, of which 134 had been vacant for three months or more, according to official data.
Other key concerns among teachers, according to the panel (see box, below), include assessment and qualifications; pupils’ wide range of additional support needs; and the isolation that can be experienced by staff in rural schools.
However, Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, said that any attempt to increase the notice period to a term - as is the case in the independent schools sector - would be resisted by teachers.
EIS assistant secretary Drew Morrice said that the notice period for teachers had already been changed in recent months, from four weeks to four working weeks’ notice.
The change was made to prevent people - particularly new teachers - from accepting a contract before the summer holidays but then handing in their notice in July because they had received a better offer. This resulted in schools starting the new academic year short of staff, Mr Morrice said.
Because teachers’ notice period is determined at a national level, the government would have to persuade the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers - the body that negotiates teachers’ pay and conditions - that further change was needed to address the issue of teachers resigning, he added.
Mr Morrice said: “We understand the logic of trying to ensure continuity of employment, but there’s a danger if the notice period is too long that someone will just say, ‘I am going; bring on the legal challenge’, and that’s the worst of all possible worlds.”
‘Sensible suggestion’
However, Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, described the proposal to ban staff from quitting posts during term time as “a sensible suggestion”.
Heads tended to work together to come up with a logical leaving date when a member of staff was moving on, but schools could find themselves left in the lurch, he added.
Mr Thewliss said: “There’s no doubt that it’s a disadvantage to pupils if their teacher leaves halfway through a term and the school has to bring somebody else in; there is going to be disruption. There would be some sense in formalising arrangements so that that can’t happen.”
The minutes of the teacher panel’s 10 August 2016 meeting state: “Where staff can be recruited to fill vacancies, it was suggested that they should only be allowed to move between local authorities at the end of the term to reduce the risk of prolonged shortages during term time, although it was acknowledged that schools could both gain and lose in such situations.”
A government spokesman said: “While arrangements for teachers moving post is a matter for local authorities to decide on, as the employers of teachers, these discussions by the teacher panel demonstrate its value. The panel is helping to share ideas and make suggestions for reforms. This is all part of our collective determination to create an education system that is world class - and teachers have a vital role to play in helping to achieve that.”
The panel’s latest meeting was on Wednesday 1 March, but the minutes are not yet available.
