Recruitment of teachers from south of the border and overseas has risen by 39 per cent in the past year, following an advertising campaign promoting the benefits of teaching in Scotland.
From April 2004 to March this year, the number of teachers from England and overseas who registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland was 960. Much of the increase came in the second half of the year.
Significant numbers are in the crucial subjects: 96 in English and 44 in maths, plus 50 in PE.
The Executive reported that advertising in early 2005 led to a 400 per cent increase in hits on its website (www.teachinginscotland. com), compared with the same period last year.
Peter Peacock, Education Minister, said: “We are recruiting teachers from other countries (except Africa) to help meet our target of 53,000 by 2007.
That will allow us to reduce class sizes and improve the impact of teaching on key groups in our schools.”
In the first five months of this year, 292 teachers from England registered to teach in Scotland - up 52 per cent. Of these, 20 are English teachers and 14 are maths teachers - the Executive’s priority subjects. For the same period last year, the figure was 192 - five of whom were maths teachers.
The 960 new registrations for the 12 months to the end of March compared with 691 in the year to March 2004. Of the 960, 567 were made between October 2004 and March, coinciding with the recruitment campaign which ran from January 17 to March 28.
It is understood that the vast majority of overseas recruits have come from English-speaking countries such as Canada, Australia and Ireland.
