Scottish Labour today said that new statistics revealed by the Times Educational Supplement Scotland showed that older teachers are not delaying their retirement, putting paid to the argument that they are partially responsible for the desperate job prospects facing new teachers.

The most common retirement age of teachers has actually fallen over the past three years - from 62 years in 2007-08 to 60 years in 2009-10 - according to the Scottish Public Pensions Agency.
Its figures revealed that the average retirement age was 61.86 in 2007-08; 60.98 in 2008-09; and 60.16 in 2009-10.

The Educational Institute of Scotland has also called on the Scottish Government to abandon the concordat to ensure that money allocated for teachers was spent on them.

The TESS reports that since the teacher jobs crisis began to bite, one explanation consistently put forward by the SNP Government and Cosla for the lack of posts for new entrants was that older teachers were putting off retirement beyond 60 because of the impact of the economic downturn on them and their families.

But Ronnie Smith from the EIS said: "This finally lays to rest the myth that older teachers deferring retiral are blocking job opportunities for new teachers.

Scottish Labour’s Education spokesman Des McNulty said:

“The myth that older teachers are not retiring and stopping young teachers from continuing their career has been completely exposed. What these figures show is that the crisis for our young teachers can be laid at the door of Mike Russell. He and his party are solely responsible for the current misery of new teachers unable to find work.

“The reason we have almost 2500 fewer teachers in Scotland and only 11 per cent of newly qualified teachers have obtained permanent posts is because of his party’s mis-management of Scotland’s education system and their broken promises.

“After  the shortcomings of Fiona Hyslop were laid bare by the government's own teacher number statistics,  Mike Russell was meant to turn around the rapid decline of Scottish education under the SNP. Instead things are getting worse under his stewardship. SNP education cuts in the good times when Scottish Government budgets were expanding will be compounded by the Tory/Liberal cuts in the pipeline.

“The SNP’s educational legacy is fewer teachers, fewer classroom assistants, hardly any jobs for newly qualified teachers, teaching unions on the brink of strikes, parents fundraising for books and play equipment and not one school built in the term of this parliament.

“The SNP excuses are falling away. It’s time that Mr Russell and his colleagues apologised for their many failures and stand down, so that Labour can stop the rot.”

3 September 2010