Take the high road to Scotland

Nineteen Irish teachers took up positions in Scottish schools last year and that figure is set to rise. So why are Scottish schools recruiting in Ireland, and why are Irish teachers taking up the offer, asks Louise Holden

The Scottish school system is experiencing a teacher shortage of crisis proportions. As an aging generation of teachers near the end of their careers, 40 per cent of teaching professionals are expected to retire in the next decade. In the meantime, this older workforce is more demanding - sick leave and other age-related absences mean that the Scottish school system is running an unworkably large network of substitute teachers.

The situation has been compounded by the Scottish executive's commitment to reduce class sizes in first and second year English and maths to 20 students by 2007. For this target to be met, the teaching workforce in Scotland will need to increase from 51,287 to 53,000 in less than two years. Maths and English teachers are in particular demand, but there are shortages right across the sector in all disciplines and at all levels.

To meet current and projected shortages, the Scottish executive launched a recruitment drive early in 2005, initially aimed at trained teachers from the new EU accession states of Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. This first phase of the drive resulted in a 40 per cent increase in the number of teachers coming to the Scottish school system from outside the jurisdiction.

Of the 1,465 teachers from outside Scotland who registered with the Scottish teaching council last year, almost one-third came from England. The remaining 1,000 new recruits came from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe. Nineteen teachers came from the Republic of Ireland last year, but that figure may rise as the Scottish executive steps up its recruitment efforts here.

So why would an Irish teacher take the high road to Scottish schooling? According to Carolynne Coole, public relations officer for the Scottish teacher recruitment campaign, teachers in Scotland are given a number of guarantees that they might not enjoy in their own countries. The McCrone deal on teachers' pay and conditions, agreed with the Scottish teachers' unions in 2001 and costing the government £800m (€1.17bn), means that a probationer teacher now starts on £22,860 (€33,561).

"The McCrone report recommends an increase in salary scales but it has also recommended other changes," says Coole. "Teachers now stand to get an additional 35 hours per year in continuing professional development training. This is offered as part of a 35-hour maximum working week from August 2001. The McCrone agreement also included the phased introduction of a maximum classroom contact time of 22.5 hours per week, and support staff such as classroom assistants are being introduced to secondary schools to help with preparation work." This shift in the classtime/professional development balance will see teachers making a maximum class commitment of 70 per cent of their working time, Coole suggests, with the remaining time reserved for professional development. There is also "hello money" on offer to recruits prepared to take up positions in areas of high need.

"Scotland has a specific scheme where all teachers are offered a one-year probationary job with a school to become a fully qualified teacher. Graduates can nominate five areas where they want to teach and they will be allocated a school in one of their chosen areas. As a large majority of teaching graduates want to work in the central belt, the executive has set up a preferred waiver payment for those teachers who take a probationer post in an area not from their five preferred choices, where they will receive an extra £6,000 ," Coole explains.

Another carrot on offer to Irish teachers is the chance to teach their own speciality. Some newly qualified teachers in Ireland are finding that their chosen subject is not available to them, and instead of teaching the English, history or geography they trained for, they find themselves teaching religion, Civil Social and Personal Education or business studies instead.

Around 400 newly recruited teachers took up positions in Scottish primary schools, while the most popular secondary school subjects requested were English, biology, history, maths and physical education.

"There are a number of good reasons for teachers to choose Scotland," says Coole. "The prospect of guaranteed employment for a year is very attractive to new graduates, as is the opportunity to use their degree subjects, instead of teaching in an unrelated area.

"The £6,000 incentive to be placed anywhere in Scotland for a year is an attractive one for a newcomer without ties to any specific region. Also, if you're Irish, Scotland is not far from home."

Owen McCarthy from Cork is currently in his probationary year at a secondary school in Glasgow. He heard about the shortage of teachers in Scotland and rather than compete for a place on a HDip programme here, he decided to take the equivalent postgrad year in Glasgow University after graduating with an arts degree from NUI Galway.

"The probationary year has been great - you're not thrown in at the deep end and you work with a mentor until you find your feet. Also, the salary on probation is more than £19,000 - that's close to €28,000. Next year when I get a permanent position that will go up by £4,000 [ €5,873] are set