Dunlop slams SNP over brutal teacher shortages in STEM subjects

3 Jul 2026

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Duncan Dunlop MSP has today accused the SNP of making “a pig’s ear” of teacher planning, as new figures revealed that the government are falling significantly short of their targets for training teachers in STEM subjects.

Teacher education intake figures for 2025 show that just 1,008 teachers undertook the PGDE secondary teaching qualifications against a Scottish Government target of 2,000.

Within STEM subjects, PGDE intakes amounted to just:

28 trainee physics teachers, when 131 were targeted (21%).
41 trainee chemistry teachers, when 159 were targeted (26%).
73 trainee maths teachers, when 250 were targeted (29%).
32 trainee technological education teachers, when 81 were targeted (40%).
67 trainee biology teachers, when 163 were targeted (41%).
31 trainee computing teachers, when 52 were targeted (60%).

Among other subjects, PGDE intakes amounted to only:

56 trainee modern languages teachers, when 138 were targeted (41%).
152 trainee English teachers, when 248 were targeted (61%).
37 trainee home economics teachers, when 138 were targeted (27%).

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Duncan Dunlop MSP said:

“The SNP have made a pig’s ear of teacher training.

“They are completely failing to train enough teachers for important secondary school subjects, particularly those in STEM.

“It is a stranglehold on Scotland’s future. Without teachers in these subjects, young people will lack the skills needed to get good jobs in growing and innovative industries like AI, precision medicine and renewables.

“The government need to address the teacher training crisis as a matter of urgency. I’d like to see them listening to my party’s calls to open up new routes to help teachers switch from primary to secondary, revamp the STEM bursary and bring back principal teachers for these subjects to create a more attractive career path for STEM graduates.

“Ultimately, we need to make sure that teacher numbers properly align with the subjects and skills that Scotland needs to succeed.”