Diversity in the teaching profession: annual data report

3. Further consideration

3.1 What data is included in this report?

Section 5 of this report presents data tables relating to ITE programmes at Scottish Universities. The data captures six-year time series (between 2026/17 and 2021/22) for entrants and qualifiers which look at ethnicity breakdowns and other relevant characteristics. These tables have been drawn from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student data.

Section 6 of this report presents data tables relating to the ethnicity of teachers working in schools in Scotland's local authorities and has been drawn from the annual Teacher Census.^[6] This report also contains information relating to students in their probationary year and on the employment of minority ethnic teachers in the year following probation between 2018 and 2022. The ethnicity of Scotland's teacher population by local authority is also included in this section.

3.2 Initial Teacher Education Additional Data

This progress report also includes data relating to ITE programmes at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

In 2021-22, 165 or 4.5% of UK-domiciled entrants to ITE programmes at Scottish HEIs came from ethnic minority backgrounds. The proportion of entrants from ethnic minorities was higher on postgraduate courses at 5.2% compared to undergraduate courses at 3.4%. All three percentages are noticeably higher than 2016-17 when only 2.7% of UK-domiciled entrants were from an ethnic minority background, including 3.3% and 1.3% to postgraduate and undergraduate courses respectively. A six-year time series is provided in Tables 5.3 and 5.4.

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. The proportion of postgraduate qualifiers went up from 2.6% to 4.3% over the same time period, with the proportion of undergraduate qualifiers increasing from 2.2% in 2016-17 to 2.5% in 2021-22.

The data also reveals that ethnic minority groups are more strongly represented in the secondary teaching sector than in primary. In 2021-22, 5.9% of UK-domiciled entrants and 4.9% of UK-domiciled qualifiers in the secondary sector came from an ethnic minority background. This compares to 3.6% of entrants and 2.7% of qualifiers in the primary sector.

All proportions have seen an increase compared to 2016-17, when only 3.7% of entrants and 3.5% of qualifiers in the secondary sector had an ethnic minority background. In the primary sector, this was 2.0% for both entrants and qualifiers. The full time series is given in Tables 5.5, 5.6, 5.14 and 5.15.

ITE programmes are offered by 11 HEIs in Scotland. The representation of ethnic minority groups varies by ITE provider and further information on this is presented in Tables 5.9 and 5.18. A breakdown by nationality is also provided in Tables 5.7, 5.8, 5.16 and 5.17. It is worth noting that in ITE, similar to the teaching workforce, there are a number of individuals with an unknown ethnicity. In 2021-22, 1.3% of qualifiers and 0.7% of entrants were recorded as having an unknown ethnicity.

3.3 Teacher Census Additional Data

In the 2022 teacher census, the ethnic background of 3% of the teaching workforce was 'unknown', down from 4% unknown in 2021. The percentage of teachers identifying as being from an ethnic minority background is lower than this, at 2%. Continuing to reduce the incidence of teachers with an unknown ethnic background is fundamental to developing robust and informed policy, as well as providing a baseline to accurately record progress in meeting the 4% target set out in the Teaching in a Diverse Scotland report (2018).

There was an increase in the proportion of probationers from an ethnic minority background between 2016/17 and 2020/21 in both primary and secondary. Since 2020/21 there has been a decrease in proportion shown in the secondary sector while the proportion in the primary sector dipped in 2021/22 before returning to the 2020/21 level in 2022/23.