Teacher induction scheme wastage rates: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

I would like to make the following freedom of information request...

Figures on teacher induction scheme wastage rates are collected for the Teacher Workforce Planning Group and “are based on an average of the last 5 years' of data” and calculate “the percentage reduction in FTE of TIS [teacher induction scheme] teachers in the year following their probation year”.
Figures in a report from 2021 put the rate at:
Primary – 19%.
Secondary – 16%

Could you please provide me with the most up-to-date teacher induction scheme wastage rates – making it clear which period the rate covers - as well as all the background data used to calculate the rates. So based on the above I would expect five years worth of data which shows the numbers on the TIS for each year and the number who actually entered the profession in the year following their probation year. Please give separate figures for primary and secondary.

As well as providing the most up-to-date teacher induction scheme wastage rates could you also provide the previous 4 – so I have a total of five teacher induction scheme wastage rates.

Response

 

Probationer cohort

 

 

201

2017

2018

2019

2020

primary

probationer headcount

1,524

1,636

1,714

1,625

1,772

1,764

post-probationer FTE

1,293

1,412

1,446

1,262

1,393

1,225

Wastage rate

15%

14%

16%

22%

21%

31%

secondary 

probationer headcount

992

987

1,132

1,213

1,307

1,359

post-probationer FTE

835

854

949

1,007

1,114

1,123

Wastage rate

16%

13%

16%

17%

15%

17%

The table shows the headcount of probationers in each year from 2015 to 2020, the full-time equivalent (FTE) of those that were employed in a publicly funded school in Scotland the year following their probation and the wastage rate. For example, there were 1,764 primary probationers in the 2020/21 cohort of which an FTE of 1,225 were employed in a publicly funded school in Scotland at the time of the September 2021 census, meaning that there was a ‘wastage’ of 31% of the primary probationer FTE.

The data shown in this table differ slightly to data available elsewhere because of small differences in the way that teachers that change sectors or work across sectors are handled. Data for earlier years is not available.

About FOI

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Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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