£50M Funding Announced For New Teacher Recruitment In Scotland

The Scottish government has announced funding worth £50m to recruit up to 1,000 new teachers and 500 teaching assistants.

It will be available to councils in the coming academic year to help schools return full time to face-to-face teaching.

Ministers also pledged £65m annually from 2022 to allow councils to employ these staff on permanent contracts.

Scottish Labour said the move was reversing years of SNP cuts.

Scottish teacher numbers rose by 1,153 to 53,400 in 2020. This total figure includes 25,651 primary teachers, 24,077 secondary teachers and 1,934 in dedicated special needs schools.

A further 1,009 staff were centrally employed and 729 were employed in early learning centers.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the vision for recovery and priorities for Scottish education remain unchanged.

The Scottish government had pledged to recruit an extra 1,400 staff to support the recovery of education during the pandemic and to allow for smaller class sizes.

Councillor Gail Macgregor, resources spokeswoman for local government body Cosla, welcomed the funding.

Scottish Labour education spokesman Michael Marra said the announcement was a step towards reversing years of SNP cuts.