The comments follow a poll by the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) last month which found that the overall teacher employment rate was 92 per cent. However it also found that of 3,300 new teachers who qualified last summer 48 per cent do not have full-time permanent posts.

The calls for extra support also come after concerns raised by teachers’ unions and representative bodies that Curriculum for Excellence is under-funded and may be difficult to implement by this September as planned.

Brian Cooklin, President of School Leaders Scotland (SLS) said:

“When the majority of those who have completed their probationary period this year in both primary and secondary sectors cannot get a permanent job, it is a criminal waste of talent and expertise. One of the outstanding features of the McCrone agreement was the establishment of a programme which generally has been delivered by schools and local authorities to an internationally recognised high standard.

“What is the point in investing so highly in people only to cast them on the scrapheap at the end of the process with very little prospect of a permanent job? It is simply not good enough to trot out the figures and state that we have 53,000 registered teachers and the school population is falling and everything will be hunky-dory. Sadly, that’s not how it feels for many newly-qualified teachers. A large number are mature entrants who have given up other jobs, tempted to re-train in response to Government advertising about the need for teachers. They often have families and commitments which make it difficult for them to travel the country in search of a job and many sacrifices may well have been made to give them the opportunity to gain the necessary qualifications and re-train. Understandably, they feel let down and bitter when their best prospect may be occasional temporary supply teaching which can offer little stability and, for example, no chance of a mortgage.

“The Scottish Government now has a golden opportunity to make progress on two fronts by providing more funding for local authorities to employ newly qualified teachers as Curriculum for Excellence teachers who would be additional staff and who could release other teachers who need time to develop the new curriculum. This would be a temporary measure to aid this curriculum development but would also build flexibility into a system which will experience an above average level of retirements in the next few years, especially given the Scottish Government’s poor track record in forecasting future need. It is time for the Government to take action and not keep hiding behind the oft-repeated mantra of the Concordat of all monies already having been given to local authorities. Otherwise it is an opportunity missed as well as being damaging to the education of our pupils and to the Scottish Education system.”

Responding to Cooklin’s comments a Scottish Government spokesperson said:

“The GTCS follow-up survey of post-probationers in April showed that 92.7 per cent of respondents had a teacher job - an increase of 4.9 per cent on last year. The Government has provided record funding of £34.9bn to local government over 2008-11 and this settlement provides sufficient funding for local authorities to maintain the employment of all the teachers that were employed in September 2007. This will provide employment opportunities for teachers after their probation year and also provide the opportunity to reduce class sizes.

“Under the Concordat, local authorities agreed to take responsibility for implementing Curriculum for Excellence. It is the role of national government to provide CPD [Continuing Professional Development] resources and materials but for individual authorities to ensure their workforce is provided with the support necessary to implement the new curriculum.”

In an acknowledgement of growing concerns like these being raised by teachers’ bodies that newly qualified teachers are struggling to find jobs after completing probation, Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop last month announced the formation of a teacher employment working group. The group has been designed to assess whether the current teacher workforce planning process is fit for purpose and whether too many new teachers are being trained in comparison to the number of jobs available.