MORAY’S TEACHER RECRUITMENT crisis would be greatly alleviated if teachers who had become fully qualified and experienced in other parts of the UK were allowed to teach in the region.
At a summit held earlier this week in Aberdeen, Moray’s director of social care and education, Lawrence Findlay, said that there were 12 teachers who had qualified in other parts of the UK – but could not be employed in Moray because they did not meet the General Teaching Council of Scotland’s regulatory requirements.
The issue has been one that is particularly hard felt in Moray, where families move from England to Scotland on a regular basis along with Army or RAF personnel posted to the region.
It is not unusual for these to include qualified teachers – but current regulations make it difficult for them to work in Moray schools.
However, the GTCS has said that they are in the middle of conducting a review of their rules – and promised that they should become more flexible. A spokeswoman said: “We currently register between 300 and 400 teachers from England each year.
“It is the largest number of teachers registering from outside of Scotland – so the myth that we do not register teachers from England is exactly that, a myth.”
However, accepting that Council’s still face serious recruitment issues, the spokeswoman added: “We are committed to working with partners to find a solution to the issues faced by councils.
“We exist to protect the public interest and part of that is to ensure that properly qualified teachers are available to support the learning and development of children and young people across the country.”
Earlier this year Forres-based teacher Alison Shand revealed that she was having to commute to work 600 miles away in Hastings in East Sussex because her qualifications did not allow her to teach in Moray.