THE results of a new survey into working conditions in schools carried out by the Scottish Parliament’s education committee should come as a surprise to no one.
The survey attracted more than 700 responses and has highlighted a long list of problems and concerns which have existed for years - low pay, over-work, poor discipline and a lack of support for trainees among them. For anyone who regularly speaks to teachers or takes an interest in the education system, it will all have a depressingly familiar ring about it.
Particularly worrying is what people new to the profession are saying. These are, for the most part, young people who are keen to get started on a new career and yet some are very quickly taking a look at the job and concluding that it is not for them. One of those who took part in the survey said there was little to no consideration for a trainee’s health and wellbeing. How bad does it have to be to scare off new teachers so quickly?
Officially, trainees are supposed to be given time to observe other teachers at work in the classroom and develop their own lessons; they are also given a mentor who can offer advice and guidance. But some of those who responded to the survey said the mentor was often a teacher who had barely more experience than them.
We also know that trainee teachers can be thrown in at the deep end to help cover staff shortages. To some extent that is understandable at a time when many schools face a staffing crisis – last year there were 730 unfilled vacancies across 27 of Scotland’s 32 council areas - but the survey would appear to suggest that increasing the burden on trainees risks putting them off the profession altogether, thereby potentially making the shortages even worse.
The survey also identifies a number of other issues which need serious attention, including a lack of support from parents as well as a lack of promotion prospects. And it is no surprise that the familiar issues of pay and workload form a strong theme in the survey. In the 16 years since the McCrone deal, teachers’ pay has been allowed to slip back; teachers have also watched their workloads increase considerably as a result of the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence. To its credit, the Scottish Government has taken some action by removing unit assessments from both National 5 and Higher exams, but it is still clear that not enough has been done to address the workload problem.
It should be pointed out that it is not all doom and gloom in the survey – there is still considerable passion among teachers for what they can achieve in the classroom and the positive contribution they can make to pupils’ lives. It may also be that the survey attracted teachers with the most to get off their chests.
But even so, in relying on first-hand accounts from teachers who are normally very restricted in what they can say, the survey has underlined the real issues that teachers are facing every day. In carrying out the survey, the Scottish Parliament’s education committee has helped to lift the lid on a long list of problems. It should now act as yet another reminder to the Scottish Government that they have to do something about them.
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