BREXIT has left teachers from abroad wondering if it’s “worthwhile to come and teach in Scotland”, one of the country’s education chiefs has warned.
General Teaching Council of Scotland chief executive Ken Muir, made the comments as he revealed that his organisation had just 14 requests for registration in the first six months of 2018 from applicants hailing from European Union countries and Switzerland.
That compares to 128 applications in 2015, 159 in 2016 and 186 last year.
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Muir told Holyrood Magazine: “Having maintained numbers pretty high from the EU, they are falling off a cliff, and that’s absolutely down to Brexit.
“Whereas in the health and care industries two years ago the numbers it more or less started to dwindle, the teacher numbers kept up.
“Particularly from three countries in the EU, Greece, Poland and Spain, we get a good number of applicants, followed by the Republic of Ireland it has to be said – those four are our big hitters, and those numbers have dwindled to next to nothing.”
The overall number of applicants from outside Scotland has also fallen with only 126 in the first half of 2018.
That compares to 614 registrants in 2016 and 598 last year.
Muir added: “It’s always been the case that immigration rules, tier two status and all the rest of it have had a role to play in that, but I think that, together with Brexit, means folk are asking ‘is it really worthwhile to come and teach in Scotland?’”
“It compounds the problem we’ve got bringing teachers into the education system in Scotland.”
SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald was stunned by the figures: “The consequences of Brexit and damaging Tory policies around immigration are now hitting close to home – in our local schools and communities.
“Despite the best efforts of the Scottish Government to attract and retain the talent we need in our teaching sector, this work is being completely undermined by Westminster.
“The existing cap on the number of qualified teaching professionals allowed to enter the UK has already left some schools denied a teacher they had recruited, but these new figures are absolutely devastating.”
Ross Greer the Scottish Greens’ education spokesman, said: “Through no fault of our own, a clear message about Scotland is being sent to EU nationals and those from further afield, a message that we are closed to migrants, including those who wish to come here to teach.
“This is yet another way in which Brexit, which Scotland overwhelmingly rejected, is already damaging our society.”
Scottish Labour’s Education spokesperson Iain Gray MSP said: “These are deeply worrying figures.
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“The number of teachers in Scotland’s schools has already plummeted under this SNP government, with thousands leaving the profession as class sizes soar and wages continue to fall in real terms.
“A survey last month found a majority of teachers would not recommend the profession to others – a damning indictment of this government’s management of Scotland’s schools.
“A collapse in the number of applications from abroad as a result of the Tories’ shambolic handling of Brexit will only make this SNP teacher recruitment crisis worse.
“The Tories must urgently fix the mess they are making of Brexit – but the SNP must also urgently improve teachers’ pay and conditions to ensure more people are attracted to the profession.”
In the last 10 years the number of teachers in Scotland is estimated to have fallen by nearly 4000, from 52,446 school-based teachers working in 2007 to 48,746 in December last year and with around 600 vacancies currently existing in Scottish schools.
It emerged in January that councils were forced to re-advertise 2275 posts they were unable to fill at the first attempt.
Research, published by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) Scotland last month found only half of teachers feel satisfied with their job, and the majority do not feel their profession is valued in society.
Fifty-four per cent would still choose teaching if they could decide again, 33% would opt for a different career.
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