Created on: 17 Oct 2025 | Last modified: 20 Oct 2025
On 5 November 2025 we urge all members to wear an item of red clothing to show their support for teachers on temporary contracts.
Precarity of contract is an increasing problem for the teaching workforce in Scotland, particularly amongst those newly qualified and recently qualified teachers.
Many people were encouraged to go into teaching, but have found that getting a permanent post is virtually impossible and therefore they have had to rely on temporary contracts - short-term supply and fixed term temporary work.
These temporary posts do not give job security, limit professional development, lower job satisfaction and do not provide a decent or regular income.
Some newly and recently qualified teachers have had no alternative but to leave the profession, The situation is particularly bad for primary school teachers, especially in parts of the central belt.
The Scottish Government’s website of “Summary statistics from the Teacher Census 2024” states:
“For the 2023/24 cohort, the proportion of TIS probationers in a full-time permanent post at the time of the following year’s census (September 2024) was 25%, down from 29% for the previous cohort. This continues the long-term decrease from a high of 57% in a full-time permanent post for the 2016/17 cohort.”
The same data shows that in 2024, the percentage of teachers working part-time, as a proportion of all FTE, was 20%. There was a higher rate amongst females (23%), than males (9%). Whilst part-time working may be through choice, underemployment is an issue across sectors, including teaching.
Scottish Government data from the Teacher Census is supported by the data from our own Members’ Survey. The most recent EIS members' national survey found that only 66.2% of respondents were on a full-time permanent contract. Of the remaining respondents, 1.8% were in their probationary year, 21.3% were on a part-time permanent contract, and the remaining 10.7% were on a mixture of temporary/supply contracts, or were unemployed and seeking a contract.
Those teachers at the beginning of their career (within the first five years) are the least likely to report that they are happy with their current contract, with almost a third saying that they are not happy.
The lack of permanent contracts for NQT/RQTs is a huge concern and is a key part of the Stand Up for Quality Education (SU4QE) Campaign.
What is the EIS doing to get work for Teachers on Temporary Contracts?
The EIS has been campaigning to increase teacher numbers. Despite Scottish Government manifesto promises to recruit more teachers, however, the Scottish Government and COSLA seem to be only seeking to maintain teacher numbers.
COSLA and the Scottish Government have agreed to maintain teacher numbers at the 2021 level, but the agreement does not seem to be binding. Teacher numbers continue to fall in some local authorities, and the overall number of teachers employed in Scotland fell in 2023 and 2024.
One way to improve precarity for teachers who cannot find permanent teaching work is to create more teaching jobs. This is one of the reasons we are campaigning to reduce teachers weekly class contact to 20 hours per week and class sizes to 20; these are our aspirations.
The Scottish Government's commitment to reduce class contact time from  22.5 hours to 21 hours per week would be a huge step forward in mitigating the current precarity of contracts.
We are campaigning hard – on a journey to taking industrial action – to pressure the Scottish Government and COSLA to deliver the 21 hours of weekly class contact.
The additional 1.5 hours of weekly class contact time per full-time teacher would lead to a large number of additional teaching posts – for which our colleagues on temporary contracts are eminently suitable.
Every teacher will need 1.5 hours of their teaching to be delivered by another teacher. This means additional teachers or more permanent part-time teacher hours for qualified teachers.
This is a win-win: extra permanent posts/hours for teachers and a workload reduction for all serving teachers.
What you can do
Wear red on November 5th 2025, and share photographs of yourself and colleagues on social media to show your solidarity with teachers on temporary contracts.
Furthermore, when the ballot on industrial action opens on 12th November, please vote YES to industrial action in pursuit of the reduction in class contact time dispute.
Note
Please see other parts of our website for further advice on temporary contracts: