AS teacher numbers plummeted across Scotland in the years after the SNP took power in 2007 the decline became a key political battleground.
The Scottish Government expected councils to maintain numbers at nearly 53,000 to help deliver its policy on smaller class sizes, but faced with declining pupil rolls, many local authorities opted to axe teachers in the face of budget cuts.
By 2015 numbers had fallen to around 48,000 and the SNP finally decided to get tough as pressure from teaching unions and opposition parties mounted.
In a 2015 circular to local government the Scottish Government set out its new approach calling for the maintenance of the total number of teachers employed by individual councils the previous year “as a minimum”, as well as expectations on pupil teacher ratios.
While the measure undoubtedly helped to halt the slide there was a subsequent backlash from councils who argued it was unfair to force them to maintain teacher numbers when rolls were falling.
Local authorities also argued the policy impacted disproportionately on other parts of the education budget - such as support staff - because savings could not be made from the teacher workforce.
By March 2017 the Scottish Government had decided to soften its stance with new guidance requiring local authorities “to maintain the overall pupil teacher ratio at 2016 levels” in return for extra funding.
While this still required councils to maintain existing levels, the focus on overall pupil teacher ratios rather than raw teacher numbers meant officials had greater flexibility over the workforce.
However, by December last year the Scottish Government’s previous hardline stance was dropped.
The guidance makes no mention of the preservation either of previous teacher numbers or prior pupil teacher ratios.
Instead, councils are required only to maintain an overall pupil teacher ratio of 13.7, opening the door for the 21 councils who have better ratios to cut teacher numbers and still collect their share of the £51 million in additional funding set aside to support the latest targets.
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