99 new teachers were hired from Scottish universities through Teach First to work down south in 2015.
And despite the project being hailed for fast-tracking some of the best teachers as well as improving challenging schools in deprived areas, the Scottish Government has continually refused to mirror the scheme here.
Today, at First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson urged the SNP to introduce the project as one of a number of efforts to help close Scotland’s attainment gap.
But Nicola Sturgeon said she had concerns about it, even though there is a shortage of teachers across many key subjects in Scotland, with teachers even threatening to strike over workload issues.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:
“There is a real issue regarding teacher recruitment in Scotland and we need to act.
“It is incredible that, last year, 100 of Scotland’s brightest graduates were hired by a teaching scheme in England and are now lost to Scotland’s schools
“These are talented individuals who could both help address the recruitment issue, and work in some of our most challenging schools to raise standards and close the attainment gap.
“But instead of mirroring this scheme, the First Minister will only offer warm words without providing any action.
“It just shows that, when it comes to schools, the SNP would rather export teachers than innovate teacher training.
“We are losing talented teachers to a scheme the Scottish Government is choosing to ignore, and that has to change.”