The Scottish government has published its annual snapshot of the number of vacant teaching posts in Scotland. The figures show impressive improvements on last year.

However, whilst education secretary John Swinney used the figures to boast that there had been “significant reductions in jobs advertised for more than three months”, the figures come with a health warning.

Last year’s figures - the statisticians involved warn - were “inflated” thanks to the £120 million cash injection from the Pupil Equity Fund leading to schools trying to recruit more staff.

Are teacher jobs being filled?

Comparing the number of teaching vacancies this year with 2016 - as opposed to 2017 - still shows a reduction overall, but the number of long-term vacancies actually increased, with the number of vacancies unfilled in secondary schools for over three months almost doubling between 2016 and this year.  

• Permanent full- and part-time vacancies in primary schools fell from 309 in 2017 to 204 this year, and from 507 to 402 in secondary schools.
• Vacancies which had gone unfilled for three months or more fell more sharply, from 136 to 49 in primary and 229 to 148 in secondary.
• However, the statistics come with a health warning because the introduction of the £120 million Pupil Equity Fund led to last year’s figures being “inflated”, says the government, and more posts being advertised, “most notably in Glasgow City Council”
• In Glasgow there were 19 vacancies at secondary in 2016, 130 in 2017 and 40 this year.
• So for Scotland as a whole, if we ignore last year’s figures and compare 2018 and 2016 instead, there is still improvement but it is far less pronounced - particularly at secondary level, where permanent full- and part-time vacancies fell from 411 to 402.
• When it comes to long-term vacancies, there are more this year than in 2016: in 2016 there were 33 vacancies for primary teachers that had taken more than three months to fill, compared with 49 this year. At secondary level there were 75 long-term vacancies in 2016, rising to 148 this year.
• Authorities that had no vacancies which it had taken over three months to fill in primary or secondary included: Clackmannanshire, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Perth and Kinross, and Renfrewshire
• The authority recording no teaching vacancies - in the long or short term - was South Ayrshire
• Maths was the subject worst hit by lack of staff, with 60 vacancies this year, down from 71 last year
• Secondary subjects with over 20 vacancies this year included: maths (60); English (51); home economics (23); technical studies (23); and additional support needs (25)
• Primary and secondary school leader vacancies remained fairly steady between this year and last year, although the number of primary depute headteacher vacancies rose from 34 to 47.