MORE than 100 teachers teachers employed by a Scots council have been left "seriously upset" after being informed days before the summer holidays that their jobs are no longer available. 

North Lanarkshire Council emailed some 80 primary and 50 secondary teachers on Friday, just a week before schools in the authority break for summer, telling them it can no longer offer temporary or fixed-term contracts from August.

Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, said teachers were not offered any notice prior to the announcement, leaving staff "deeply anxious and worried".

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A spokeperson for North Lanarkshire council said that a reduction in pupil numbers meant that government funding had dropped by £1.8 million, leaving the local authority unable to maintain current teacher levels. 

He added that the council’s share of Scottish Government Strategic Equity Funding, used in part to recruit additional teachers, has fallen by £2m for 2023/24.

However, Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary, said: “The issuing of these notifications by North Lanarkshire Council, with no prior notice whatsoever, late on a Friday and within days of the summer holidays, has caused serious upset amongst the teachers affected.

"Instead of being able to start their well-earned summer break on a high, they are deeply anxious and worried about how they are going to cover the costs of food and housing as prices and mortgage rates and rents continue to soar."

The Scottish Government’s Teacher Induction Scheme guarantees every eligible student graduating with a teaching qualification is guaranteed a one-year training post in a local authority.

Ms Bradley added: "After years of study and training to become teachers, when class sizes are full to bursting, and when there’s insufficient support for children and young people with additional support needs, it is quite scandalous that highly qualified professionals face such casualisation and precarity.”

The Herald told last month about widespread issues across the sector with teachers unable to secure permanent contracts and being left with the uncertainty of supply shifts.

Ms Bradley said North Lanarkshire Council had made “poor decision-making” but echoed sentiments that “precarity and lack of job security is endemic across Scotland” has been caused by consistent underfunding from the Scottish Government.

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She said: “There are hundreds, if not thousands of teachers, all over Scotland who are unable to progress in their lives because of lack of certainty that they will have a job from one week to the next.

“This is no way to staff a vital public service such as Education and it’s no way to treat workers in a country that aspires to be a Fair Work nation by 2025.

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“The Scottish Government and local authorities need to stop playing politics with people’s lives and with our essential public services – our citizens deserve so much better.”

The spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: “It has always been clear that, while the council was able to offer newly qualified teachers employment for this current year, these contracts were temporary and would expire at the end of the year.

"Similarly, where enough vacancies do not exist, probationer teachers have always been placed on the supply list.

“Funding made available to the council by the Scottish Government for teacher recruitment has fallen substantially.

“Against that backdrop, head teachers did not have vacancies available for around 130 teachers across primary and secondary schools.

"All the staff concerned will be included on the supply teacher register and their availability will be circulated across the school estate so that head teachers can match them to opportunities that arise during the summer recess and during the next session.”