A quarter of newly-qualified teachers leave profession after one year

New data has shown that one in four NQTs in Scotland “disappear” from the profession after completing their probationary year.

630 out of 2,699 probationers in 2015 didn’t go on to work as fully qualified teachers.

Experts have suggested that many after taking their skills and qualifications to work abroad.

However, Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association told Deadline News: “Quite a few get disillusioned because they can’t get a permanent position – many are being put on temporary contracts.

“What we need is not so much getting the numbers up going in but keeping them in once they get through and into the first placement.

“We gurantee a first-year placement but they have to fight for jobs at the end of that first year.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman, however, said that the stats were misleading: “The most accurate information on the number of of probationer teachers moving into employment is the Teacher Census, which shows that the percentage of probationers moving into employment is the highest ever, with a significant increase in the number of those probationers securing a permanent post.

“The pay data is not an appropriate or reliable measure of the retention of new teachers. Official, published figures do not support the picture presented, instead showing that 87% of 2015 probationers secured a teaching job in publicly funded schools in 2016.

“Where there is a drop off it may be that a person has taken a job at a higher level or it may be that people choose to take a career break having completed their probation intending to return to teaching.”