Teacher induction scheme wastage rates: FOI release

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.

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