Diversity in the teaching profession: annual data report

2. Key Findings

Employed Teachers

• A small increase in the number of minority ethnic teachers within Scotland's schools from 945 in 2021 to 980 in 2022 (1.8% of the workforce).
• A higher proportion of ethnic minority teachers in the secondary sector, 2.3% of the workforce, than in the primary sector, 1.2% of the workforce.
• Minority ethnic teachers are less represented in promoted posts compared to the profession as a whole, with fewer than 1% of teachers in promoted posts identifying as being from a minority ethnic background.

New Teachers

• A higher proportion of new teachers coming into the profession from minority ethnic backgrounds, compared to the overall teacher population. In 2022, 3.6% of secondary probationary teachers and 2.2% of primary probationary teachers came from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• A lower proportion of ethnic minority probationers finding employment after finishing their probationary year compared to the whole probationer population. From the 2021/22 Teacher Induction Scheme cohort, 23% of secondary school probationers from an ethnic minority background found permanent employment in their first year of teaching. This is lower than the probationer cohort as a whole, which saw 50% of secondary probationers finding permanent employment.

Initial Teacher Education

• The representation of ethnic minorities in entrants and qualifiers within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has, overall, increased slightly over the past six years between 2016-17 and 2021-22.
• In 2021-22, 165 or 4.5% of UK-domiciled entrants to ITE programmes at Scottish HEIs came from ethnic minority backgrounds. This is noticeably higher than 2016-17 when only 2.7% of UK-domiciled entrants were from an ethnic minority background.
• There were 110 UK-domiciled qualifiers from ITE programmes at Scottish HEIs from an ethnic minority background in 2021-22. This represents 3.5%, an increase from 2.7% in 2016-17.

Ethnicity Data Disclosure

• In 2022 the number of teachers in Scotland choosing 'unknown' as their ethnicity on the Teacher Census had reduced from 4% in 2021 to 3%. This trend was the same within ITE where 1.3% of qualifiers and 0.7% of entrants were recorded as having an 'unknown' ethnicity, this was down from over 2% in 2021.

What is needed to meet the 2030 target?

• The target of achieving at least 4% of teachers identifying as being minority ethnic by 2030 remains highly ambitious. To meet the target, it is broadly estimated that around 10% of all new teachers until 2030 will need to come from an ethnic minority group. This compares to around 3% that currently come from an ethnic minority group.