Registration Report 2025-26: Data and Insight

Information about registrations

Registration data by Category and Status

The Register is organised into 4 categories of registration - Primary Education, Secondary (Subject) Education, Additional Support Needs and Further Education.

Where teachers hold specific registration in Additional Support Needs, this reflects an area of individual specialism. The professional standards teachers uphold ensure that every registered teacher maintains their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to teaching learners with additional support needs.

Table 16 shows the number of registrations broken down by registration category for 31 March 2023, 31 March 2024, 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2026. The numbers in these tables are not the same as the number of individual registrants, as some registrants are registered in more than one registration category.

*Legacy registration categories are historical registration categories that are valid but no longer in active use

Table 17 below shows the total number of registrations, grouped by registration status. The number of Provisional Registrations and Provisional (Conditional) Registrations are included in the provisional registrations row with the number of Fully Registered (General) and legacy Fully Registered status included in the Full Registrations row.

Over the 2025-26 registration year there has been a:

0.69% decrease in the number of Primary Education registrations
1.55% decrease in Secondary (Subject) Education registrations
3.77% increase in Additional Support Needs registrations
4.81% increase in Further Education registrations
0.90% decrease in all registrations
0.64% decrease in Full Registrations
3.16% decrease in Provisional Registrations

As at 31 March 2026, there are 759 registrants with at least one Provisional (Conditional) Registration. Of this number, 466 registrants are school teachers, and 293 registrants are college lecturers.

In 2025-26, 77 registrations progressed from Provisional (Conditional) Registration to Full Registration. In 2024-25, 68 registrations progressed from Provisional (Conditional) Registration to Full Registration. In 2023-24, 34 registrations progressed from Provisional (Conditional) Registration to Full Registration.

Secondary (Subject) Education registrations by subject

The table below (Table 18) shows the number of Secondary (Subject) Education registrations by subject as at 31 March 2023, 31 March 2024, 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2026. Table 18 also contains the percentage variation over each of these 12-month periods as well as the variation over the entire 31 March 2023 – 31 March 2026 period., Chart 7 shows variation within registration year 2025-2026 with chart 8 showing variation over the 31 March 2023-2026 period. Both are arranged by greatest positive variation to greatest negative variation.

This list of subjects is not exhaustive and additional Secondary (Subject) Education registrations are contained on the Register that are not included below. The subjects listed in Table 18 and in Charts 7 and 8 reflect the subjects listed in the Memorandum on Entry Requirements to Programmes of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland (September 2024) and registration data for registrations connected to, but not necessarily identical to, these listed subjects has been included.

Table 18 shows an overall decline in Secondary (Subject) Education registrations between 2023 and 2026, with the most significant reductions in Economics, German and Computing Science, while a smaller number of subjects, including Modern Studies, Physical Education, Psychology, Dance and Spanish, increased over the same period.

Chart 7: Variation in Secondary (Subject) Education registrations from 31 March 2025 to 31 March 2026)

Chart 8: Variation in Secondary (Subject) Education registrations from 31 March 2023 to 31 March 2026

*Please note that only subjects that have a greater number of registrations than 1% of all secondary (subject) education registrations are shown.

The maximum age recorded on the register indicates that some individuals retain their registration well beyond what would typically be considered retirement age. This may mean that the overall size of the register overstates the number of teachers who are actively teaching or available for work. Registrants up to and including the age of 67 make up 98.59% of the total Register with 1.41% being 68 or over.

Additional Registration

A total of 3,354 registrants hold additional registrations gained through the Additional Registration route. There are a total of 3,672 additional registrations.

Of the 3,354 registrants holding additional registrations, registrants had the following categories as their original registration category:

Primary Education: 436
Secondary (Subject) Education: 2,840
Further Education: 72
Additional Support Needs: 2
Initial registration category removed on request: 4

Table 20 shows the link between original registration categories and additional registration categories.

Remaining additional registrations were movements within historical categories.

Table 20 shows that most additional registrations are held by registrants who originally held Secondary Education registration, with 71.29% adding another Secondary Education registration. Smaller proportions moved between Primary and Secondary Education or added Additional Support Needs registration, while movements involving Further Education or from Additional Support Needs were limited.