A national survey of teachers, to assess how many are unemployed or under employed, has been called for by the Liberal Democrats.

The party wants more teachers employed on a full-time basis to help schools recover from the pandemic and minimise the damage to children’s education.

Willie Rennie, LibDem education spokesman, said it’s not known how many teachers are unemployed.

Glasgow Times:

READ MORE: Glasgow schools need to expand to deal with boom in pupil numbers

The LibDems want a teacher job guarantee to ensure every qualified teacher has a job and a part to play in helping with the educational recovery.

Rennie said: “Children and young people’s lives were turned upside down by the pandemic. Despite the best efforts of parents and teachers, their educations suffered. We must not let that become a lifelong blot on their educational record.

“But to help Scottish education bounce back we need to put great teachers at the heart of education.

“I have met with teachers employed on casual, short term and zero hours contracts who are desperate to play a part in that educational recovery.

“Sadly, the numbers of teachers employed in this way has mushroomed in recent years. Some teachers have to take second or even third jobs to make ends meet.”

In Glasgow there were almost 6300 teachers employed by the council last year and 15% were on temporary contracts.

In April 2021 there were 6298 teachers, 5294 were on permanent contracts and 1004 were on temporary contracts. There were 862 on the supply register.

This week in the Glasgow Times we reported how the city has a higher teacher to pupil ratio that the Scottish average but also has deeper deprivation and language issues to contend with than most other councils.