ACROSS many sectors these days, workers find themselves shouldering ever greater responsibilities. Rarely are these additional workloads commensurate with any increase in salaries, meaning that same pay, more work has become a galling modern mantra. Given such prevailing workplace demands, there will perhaps then be little public sympathy around for those 200 Scottish headteachers who now find themselves running more than one school.
The situation has arisen because many prospective headteachers appear put off by too little pay and too much responsibility. Headteachers in Scotland are paid between £44,223 and £86,319. This, say some candidates, is not enough, meaning they opt to either stay in the classroom or earn more in the private sector.
This disparity between salary and level of responsibility comes before the implementation of the “sweeping new powers” on education set out by the Scottish Government’s governance review, which would see headteachers take on an even greater role. Among duties set out in the review’s statutory charter would be responsibility for raising attainment and closing the poverty-related gap in schools, choosing staff, deciding curriculum content and more direct control over school funding.
According to Education Secretary John Swinney these reforms are aimed at “freeing our teachers to teach,” and putting “new powers in the hands of head teachers”. As far as recruitment is concerned though, the problem appears to be much more fundamental, boiling down to getting headteachers through the door into leaderships posts in the first place. According to Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland, the two obstacles to headteacher recruitment are low pay and potential candidates being put off promotion after seeing their own bosses struggling in the role.
Recent figures on recruitment across Scotland, obtained from a Freedom of Information request provide a telling insight. They reveal a sharp rise in shared headships or executive headships, which involve one headteacher being placed in charge of two or more schools. Already some 191 headteachers, almost 10 per cent of the total, are currently in charge of more than one school in Scotland.
Not surprisingly,the latest figures have given opposition parties in Scotland more ammunition in the already heated political debate over education.The Scottish Go,vernment says it recognises the difficulties in recruiting, and was investing £525,000 this year to support 175 participants on the new Into Headship qualification for those seeking to make the move.
With many workers in other sectors having to take on more responsibility there may prove to be a dearth of public sympathy for headteachers. But given the new responsibilities being foisted upon them by the governance review, concern over the latest figures needs to be addressed.
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