Schools Reduce Subjects Amid Teacher Shortage Crisis
Secondary schools across Scotland are reducing timetables and removing entire subjects from their curriculum due to a shortage of specialist teachers, education leaders have reported to BBC Scotland News.
The Association of Directors of Education in Scotland has called for an urgent national action plan to boost recruitment and address what it describes as a "crisis" in teacher availability.
There are significant shortages in subjects such as maths, science, design technology, and computing, resulting in pupils not having access to the full range of subjects in every school year.
The Scottish government maintains that Scotland has the lowest pupil-to-teacher ratio and some of the smallest class sizes in the UK.
Analysis by BBC Scotland News reveals that over the past nine years, more than 4,000 places on the secondary postgraduate teacher training course (PGDE) have remained unfilled.
Recruitment targets for training have not been met in most subjects, with particular difficulties in maths, English, and sciences.
"There is a persistent and worsening shortage of specialist teachers," said Laurence Findlay, president of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland.
Findlay noted that some schools have been unable to offer classes in home economics, computing, and technical studies to certain year groups due to the shortage.
"Head teachers are having to make difficult decisions because the situation has become a crisis," said Findlay, who is also director of education at Aberdeenshire Council.
"I think it is a real crunch point and we need to see some decisive action on this very soon," he added.
He emphasized the need to review recruitment rules and improve the attractiveness of teaching as a profession.
Recruitment Challenges Affect Urban and Rural Schools
Louise Moir, head teacher of Mackie Academy in Stonehaven and vice president of School Leaders Scotland, highlighted that schools in both urban and rural areas are struggling to recruit teachers.
She explained that head teachers are increasingly forced to adjust timetables based on the teachers they can recruit, rather than offering the full range of subjects.
"Supply teachers are quite often going to classes in which they are not specialists, and they can't provide that knowledge and understanding that a subject specialist would," Moir said.
"I can't magic people out of thin air to do these jobs.
"We are fast approaching a point whereby educational provision, as it is recognised by the general public, is not going to be able to continue the way it is because we fundamentally will not have enough people in secondary schools on the ground to do that."
Moir shared that it took three to four years to fully staff the modern languages department at Mackie Academy.
Currently, pupils have to learn home economics on a rotational basis, a pattern that has occurred with other subjects previously.
"Where we've been short-staffed in computing science, for example, we've had computing science in S1 but we haven't had it in S2 and then it comes back on board in S3 as an option," she explained.
"There's different models that schools will use to try and make sure that young people are not having parts of the curriculum obliterated because you don't have those staff - but sometimes it's really difficult."
Secondary School Teacher Numbers and Subject Shortages
In 2023, Scotland had 359 mainstream secondary schools employing nearly 27,000 fully qualified teachers, equating to a whole time equivalent of 25,067.
This represents an increase from 23,552 in 2019 but remains below the 26,067 recorded in 2008.
There are acute shortages in specific subjects; for example, in the latest Scottish government teacher census, only one state sector teacher listed economics as their main subject.
The government sets annual recruitment targets for student teachers in each secondary school subject through the PGDE course.
analysis shows that between 2016 and 2024-2025, over 4,000 PGDE places remained unfilled.
This shortfall was calculated by comparing intake targets with actual intake numbers annually over nine years.
Most subjects experienced recruitment deficits, with the most severe in maths, English, languages, and sciences.
For instance, the 2024/25 national recruitment target for PGDE chemistry was 159, but only 54 students enrolled.
The English target was 248, with an intake of 138, and maths had a target of 250 but only 75 trainee teachers recruited.
Data for the 2025 intake has not yet been released by the Scottish government.
Statistics from the government's workforce planning group indicate that over the past nine years, universities have consistently recruited more primary teachers than needed but have fallen short in most secondary subjects.
Only physical education, history, and psychology have exceeded recruitment targets, creating surpluses in these areas.
There has also been an over-recruitment of trainee primary teachers.
Impact on Pupils and School Offerings
Olivia, a first-year pupil at Mackie Academy, enjoys learning woodwork but the class will not be available to S1 pupils next year due to a shortage of design technology teachers.
The school advertised twice for the position but received no applicants.
Consequently, there will be no practical workshop classes for S1 next year; pupils will study with art teachers instead.
"Learning how to work with wood was so important to the subject," Olivia, aged 12, said.
"If we didn't have enough teachers I'd feel quite sad."
Exploring Solutions: Four-Day School Week and Online Learning
Louise Moir suggested that introducing a four-day school week could be considered as a potential solution to teacher shortages.
She acknowledged that this idea would be controversial and is not a "one size fits all" solution.
Moir explained that a four-day week could involve compressed hours over four days or include a fifth day of online learning.
This approach might allow specialist teachers to be shared across schools, with pupils from multiple schools joining classes remotely.
Online learning is already used for some Advanced Higher subjects to share specialist teachers.
Katrina Suèr, chair of the parent council at Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire, expressed concerns about the practicality of a four-day week for parents.
"Having a child at home for one day a week every week would really impact you as a working parent," she said.
"I don't think it would be achievable for parents and would mean children missing out on a fifth of their education."
In 2024, chairpersons of 17 parent councils in Aberdeenshire wrote to the Scottish government requesting urgent action to address teacher shortages in the northeast.
The then education secretary, Jenny Gilruth, indicated the issue would be examined, but Suèr noted that conditions have worsened since.
Local Authorities and Government Response
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) acknowledged the challenges posed by teaching shortages in specific subjects nationwide.
A spokesperson stated:
"This provides local authorities with real challenges to delivering subject choice to learners and fill timetables.
"We are working with Scottish government and our trade union partners to identify solutions to overcome these challenges."
The Scottish government highlighted that teachers in Scotland are the best paid in the UK.
"Teacher numbers have increased by more than 2,700 over the last decade thanks to Scottish government investment," a spokesperson said.
"Scotland already has the lowest pupil-teacher ratio and smallest class sizes anywhere in the UK, and ministers are committed to at least maintaining this ratio over the lifetime of this parliament."
The spokesperson added that annual teacher training targets consider the number of teachers beginning training.
"Any shortfall in one year doesn't simply carry over in full to the next, because targets and modelling are adjusted based on actual recruitment," they said.
