Teacher numbers in Scotland fell by more than 700 between 2022 and 2025, despite the government allocating more than £620 million to protect teacher numbers during that period.
In 2022, the Scottish Government began allocating at least £145.5 million for councils to “protect” teacher numbers. This money has been ringfenced for that purpose since at least 2024, according to government officials.
This allocation was repeated in 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, and the Scottish Government increased the level of investment to £186.5m in 2025/2026, bringing the total allocated for this purpose since 2022 to £623m.
Government reports show that the money was initially intended to support councils in meeting its targets for adding 3,500 new teachers before the end of the Parliament in 2026 — a commitment set out in the SNP’s 2021 election manifesto. In 2023, a statement from the previous education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, explained that councils stood to lose this "additional annual funding" if they failed to “maintain increased teacher numbers”.
In September 2024, Cabinet Secretary for Education Jenny Gilruth told the Scottish Parliament that the £145.5m was “ringfenced to protect teacher numbers”.
When asked how that ringfencing operates in practice — including whether councils are permitted to use the funding to pay teacher salaries, subsidise recruitment incentives such as accommodation, or take other specific measures to retain or recruit staff — and whether the Scottish Government tracks how each council spends its allocation, officials did not provide details.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The 2026-27 budget continues to provide local authorities with an additional ringfenced £186.5m to protect teacher numbers.
“Recent figures show an increase in teacher numbers for the first time in three years. There are 2,700 more teachers in Scotland's classrooms over the past decade as a result of investment by this Government.
“We will continue to engage with councils to increase teacher numbers, ensuring children and young people continue to have access to a world-class education.”
The statement confirms that the funding remains ringfenced, but does not specify what spending is permitted under that designation, how “protecting teacher numbers” is reflected in council budgets, or whether the Government monitors how individual councils allocate their share of the money.
The government chose not to claw back any funding when teacher numbers fell in both 2023 and 2024, and instead set a new target for councils to restore their teacher numbers to their 2023 levels.
Instead, teacher numbers have fallen over that period. Documents previously obtained by The Herald under Freedom of Information laws show that many councils have indicated they felt powerless to meet the targets.
A letter from West Dunbartonshire officials indicated that the council had no plans to increase teacher numbers and that any sanctions or clawbacks could be challenged in court.
Correspondence also included references to “many communications about what is being referred to as additional funding”, suggesting disagreement over whether the £145.5m was additional or somehow part of the existing local government settlement.
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A spokesperson for COSLA, the representative body for local authorities, said that teacher salaries account for more than a third of local government expenses nationally and that subsequent teacher pay rises have added to those costs since the ringfenced £145.5m was first allocated.
“Councils make difficult decisions about budgets, and within education, the focus must be on supporting the best outcomes for young people.
“The pay bill for the whole teaching workforce across Scotland is over £4.3 billion, which is 35% of the local government pay bill overall. The funding from the Scottish Government for this commitment did not meet the original spending power of 2021.
“Councils have had to manage the pay and employee national insurance contributions pressures for non-teaching staff as well, including staff such as pupil support assistants.”
In 2022, there were 54,193 teachers in Scotland. The most recent total for teachers across Scotland’s schools is 53,475, according to 2025 census data.
The latest figures represent a small increase from 2024, but the total is 558 short of the target to return to 2023 levels and 718 fewer than when the government began allocating £145.5m annually. The December 2025 census data may not yet reflect the full impact of the increased £186.5m settlement for 2025/2026.
The decline in numbers is spread across the country, with only one-third of councils reporting teacher numbers equal to or exceeding their figures from two years ago.
Overall, the number of teachers in Scotland has risen by 2,755 since 2014. However, totals have not returned to the previous high of 55,100, which was recorded in 2007, the year the SNP first came into government.
Drop in numbers part of broader workforce pressures
The failure to meet teacher number targets coincides with a number of other challenges facing the profession from both a staff and employers’ perspective.
In the same 2021 manifesto that promised 3,500 new teachers, the Scottish Government also committed to reducing teachers’ class contact time by 90 minutes over the school week. After years of little movement in negotiations between councils, teaching unions, and the government, Mrs Gilruth announced a set of proposals to reduce contact time.
However, the announcement was met with resistance from unions, who felt the manner of its release – to the press without first being discussed in official negotiations – undermined the national bargaining process. It also led COSLA to question the cost fundamentals of the proposals. COSLA has placed an estimated price tag of at least £250m for delivering reduced contact time.
Also, at the end of 2025, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), the nation’s teaching regulator, warned that teachers are leaving the profession “sooner than expected” and that more effort is needed to improve teacher retention.
GTCS figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats showed that 2,081 teachers have left within five years of obtaining their provisional registration since 2018.
This is perhaps partly driven by struggles for new teachers to find jobs: government data shows that only 23% of teachers who completed the Teacher Induction Scheme in 2024/2025 had permanent full-time jobs by the end of the year.
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