LESS than a quarter of newly qualified teachers in Scotland have managed to land a permanent post, despite union concerns over excessive workloads.

Scottish government statistics covering 2024-25 show that 2,294 newly qualified teachers completed their guaranteed one year probation in the classroom, but just 568 went on to permanent employment in the nation’s schools.

Of the 1,726 left without permanence, 711 have left the profession or left Scotland, while 1,015 languished on temporary or fixed-term contracts which enable councils grappling with budget crises to save cash by not paying wages over school breaks.

Responding to the statistics on BBC Scotland’s Breakfast radio programme, SNP Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth appeared to blame teachers wage demands, stating they had “cost the government in excess of £800 million since 2021.”

But she claimed: “Teacher numbers across the board since 2014 have increased, they are increasing in the past year alone thanks to extra funding that we put in last year’s budget that was protected for this purpose.”

The increases have however fallen short of her party’s 2021 manifesto commitment to cut teacher workloads by taking on 3,500 additional teachers and cutting class contact time to 21 hours a week.

In a message to the newly qualified, Ms Gilruth, herself a former teacher, added: “You’re not guaranteed a job on qualification, you have to go out there and look for one. You have to apply to a range of different local authorities, that’s exactly the pathway that I followed.”

Teaching union EIS, who have campaigned for the manifesto commitments to be met and workloads to be cut, had balloted for national strike action on the issue, returning 85.9 per cent support for strike last week.

The turnout on the ballot of 46.6 per cent however meant that it fell foul of anti-trade union legislation. 

The EIS executive however vowed to keep up the pressure on government to cut workload pressures on teachers with a reballot, and challenging the Scottish government on the same programme.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “We’ve seen something in the region of 20 per cent of teachers in Scotland employed on a temporary basis.

“If you want to value education in Scotland, then that means valuing the workforce that delivers that education.”