Green MSP welcomes teacher recruitment drive in Falkirk

The funding was made available through the Scottish budget. It is enough for all of the approximately fifteen hundred teachers recruited on temporary contracts across the country during the pandemic to be offered permanent positions and for an additional thousand permanent teaching posts to be created.

The extra £145 million allocated to teacher recruitment in the 2022/23 Scottish budget is the largest single increase since 2007.

This funding marks the first step in delivering a key commitment in the cooperation agreement reached by the Scottish Greens and Scottish Government earlier this year.

By the end of this parliamentary term Scotland’s schools will have five thousand more teachers than was the case before the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as five hundred additional classroom assistants.

Gillian Mackay said: “I am delighted that with Greens in government we’ve been able to deliver this significant extra funding for Falkirk to recruit more teachers. Education has been massively disrupted throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

"We can’t forget though that even before March 2020 Scotland’s teachers had some of the longest hours and heaviest workloads in the developed world. Getting extra teachers into classrooms is the best way to support children and young people who have been so badly affected by the pandemic and to help the existing school staff who have gone to such herculean efforts for the sake of their pupils.

"I am sure that we’ll see the benefit of this funding across Falkirk in the months ahead.”

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