Diversity in the teaching profession: annual data report 2025

2. Key findings

2.1 Employed teachers

• There has been a slight increase in the number of minority ethnic teachers working within Scotland’s schools from 987 in 2023 to 989 in 2024 (1.9% of the workforce in both years).
• There is a higher proportion of minority ethnic teachers in the secondary sector (2.5% of the workforce) than in the primary sector (1.2% of the workforce).
• Minority ethnic teachers are less represented in promoted posts compared to the profession as a whole, with fewer than 1% of teachers in promoted posts identifying as being from a minority ethnic background.

2.2 New teachers

• The proportion of minority ethnic probationers in both primary and secondary has decreased since last year. In 2024, 3.7% of secondary probationary teachers and 2.0% of primary probationary teachers came from minority ethnic backgrounds (figures for 2023 were 4.3% and 2.6% respectively). There is a higher proportion of new teachers coming into the profession from minority ethnic backgrounds, compared to the overall teacher population.
• A lower proportion of minority ethnic probationers are employed in Scottish schools after finishing their probationary year compared to the whole probationer population. From the 2023/24 Teacher Induction Scheme cohort, 29% of primary school probationers from a minority ethnic background were in posts in publicly funded Scottish schools in their first year after probation. This is lower than the probationer cohort as a whole, which saw 55% of primary probationers in posts.
• The difference in employment outcomes is smaller in the secondary sector than the primary sector, where 81% of all secondary probationers and 72% of minority ethnic probationers from the 2023/24 Teacher Induction Scheme cohort were employed in posts the first year after their probation.

2.3 Initial Teacher Education (ITE) – Postgraduate Applicants and Acceptances

• As at the UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) January equal consideration deadline (where all applications received must be considered), there were 2,170 Scottish domiciled applicants applying to a UK provider to study postgraduate ITE in the 2025 cycle, which broadly covers the 2025-26 academic year. An estimated 8.3% of Scottish domiciled applicants were Asian, Black, Mixed or Other, an increase from 7.4% in 2024 and from 6.6% in 2023.
• In the 2024 cycle, there were 1,935 Scottish domiciled placed applicants to postgraduate ITE courses at a UK provider, with the vast majority accepted to Scottish providers. An estimated 6.5% were Asian, Black, Mixed or Other, a decrease from 6.6% in 2023, but an increase from 5.3% in 2022.

2.4 Initial Teacher Education (ITE) – Undergraduate and Postgraduate Entrants and Qualifiers

• Minority ethnic representation in entrants within ITE at university has, increased between 2022-23 and 2023-24, while qualifiers have decreased over the same time scale.
• In 2023-24, 6.2% (or 180) of UK-domiciled entrants to ITE programmes at Scottish universities came from minority ethnic backgrounds. This is an increase from 2022-23 when 4.4% (or 145) of UK-domiciled entrants were from a minority ethnic background.
• There were 95 UK-domiciled qualifiers from ITE programmes at Scottish universities from a minority ethnic background in 2023-24. This represents 3.9%, a decrease from 4.2% in 2022-23. The decrease was driven by qualifiers in undergraduate courses which decreased from 3.5% to 2.2%, with an increase from 4.6% to 5.0% recorded in postgraduate qualifiers.
• The decrease in undergraduate qualifiers has been partially driven by a noticeable increase in ‘not applicable or not known’ ethnicity within the data.

2.5 Ethnicity data disclosure rates

• In 2024 the number of teachers in Scotland not disclosing their ethnicity on the Teacher Census remained at 3%, the same as in 2023. There were also 3% of teachers where the ethnicity was reported by the local authority as ‘Unknown’.
• The percentage of teachers identifying as being from a minority ethnic background is lower than this, at around 2%. Continuing to reduce the incidence of teachers with an unknown ethnic background is fundamental to developing robust and informed policy, as well as providing a baseline against which to accurately record progress in meeting the 4% target set out in the Teaching in a Diverse Scotland report (2018).