 We move to our next item of business today, which is typical questions at question number one from Monica Lennon. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the teaching practice placements for teacher training students at the University of Strath Cleid, which were due to have started on 19 September. 100 strathglad university students are yet to have their placements confirmed. Student teacher placements are arranged using the student placement system that enables the matching of student teachers to school places throughout Scotland. The general teaching council for Scotland hosts the student placement system, but the system is entirely reliant on universities providing good information about students and local authorities providing adequate places for students in schools for successful matches to be made. Supporting student teachers is a fundamental professional responsibility of local authorities, schools and experienced teachers. I expect all schools to be willing to offer placements to student numbers and it is vital that there is co-operation between the general teaching council, universities, local authorities and schools to ensure that sufficient places are secured. I have discussed this matter with the chief executive of the general teaching council for Scotland and he has assured me that everything possible is being done to secure placements for these students as quickly as possible. My officials have also discussed this issue with the general teaching council, the university of Strathclyde and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, and are continuing to work with those bodies to deliver an early solution to this problem. The minister for that answer did emerge this morning in a report in The Herald that more than 110 students at universities—not just at Strathclyde but across Scotland—were unable to begin school placements yesterday. Dozens of those students locked out of the classroom have been in touch with me for assistance. One of those students row and there are dozens of emails here. I have not been able to get a confirmed school. I am now sitting in my university library feeling that Scotland hates its new teachers and that talent and potential is being wasted, emotional words. What assurances can the minister therefore give to reassure those students that those who are currently without a placement will be allocated one very soon that will allow them to fulfil their training requirements and can a deadline be given for this action? The first thing that I want to say is that I understand entirely the frustration of young people that are affected in this way. I find it wholly and utterly unacceptable that this situation has arisen. Monica Lennon will understand, as I explained in my first answer, that this system is reliant entirely on universities providing good information about students and local authorities providing adequate places for students in schools. The responsibility to ensure that the system works adequately and effectively is for there to be sufficient placements identified within schools and for universities to be able to identify the correct information on individual candidates to secure the resolution. What I can assure Monica Lennon about is that there has been a substantial number of placements already arranged. There are 6,526 students in the cohort that are currently seeking placements and there are, as of the data that I have available to me, 128 placements requiring to be placed around the whole of Scotland. The overwhelming majority of placements have been secured, but that is not good enough for the 128 young people who are affected by this problem. As I explained in my answer, I have discussed this issue with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, which hosts the system and facilitates it, but the system is entirely dependent on the universities and schools coming up with the placements. A number of actions have been identified to advance the issue. The General Teaching Council has asked school leaders Scotland to communicate with principal head teachers and senior management teams in schools to communicate with its members to encourage them to offer placements. Strathglad University will engage directly with local authorities to identify placement matches for students. The Association of Directors of Education has agreed to communicate with all directors of education in the western partnership and encourage them to offer placements. The General Teaching Council will facilitate a manual placement process to ensure a quick turnaround. There will be follow-up action taken by the Government to ensure that those actions are being taken to try to draw the matter to close as quickly as we possibly can. Again, I welcome some of those remarks, because those students are our next generation of teachers. A practice placement is a vital part of their training to ensure that they are equipped to meet the targets set by the Scottish attainment challenge. However, that is not the first time that this has happened. When similar issues with practice placements emerged in September 2014, the General Teaching Council Scotland said that the new system would require time to address the issues to lead to smoother operation in the future. It is now two years down the line, and the students who are on placement now, or who are hoping to be on placement, will have further placements throughout the rest of the year. Can we be assured that the Scottish Government will exhaust all avenues to make sure that the student placement system leaves no student behind? I have every interest in ensuring the successful placement of aspiring teachers in the system, but I would have thought that that would be the priority for everybody. We are experiencing just now, and we hear about those points in Parliament about a shortage of teachers, which would therefore suggest to me the importance that has to be attached in every single local authority in the country of ensuring that there are an adequate number of school placements available for trainee teachers. I cannot direct schools to make placements available. Local authorities run the schools of Scotland, and they have to take responsibility for ensuring that there are adequate places available. It is in all of our interests to make sure that there are placements for young people so that they can get on with their teacher training and fill the vacancies in the teaching profession that exist. I am absolutely committed to making sure that those young people are able to fulfil their teacher training, but I call on the universities of Scotland and the local authorities of Scotland to do what is entirely within their responsibility to ensure that there is an adequate number of school placements available and that there is good quality information from universities to resolve the issue. That way, we will enable to do what Monica Lennon quite rightly said in her question, to ensure that those aspiring teachers can make a substantial contribution to the future of Scottish education, which is what I want to see them do. I, too, have had a number of constituents who raised concerns over the matter. I am glad that you have clarified the case that the system is run by universities in partnership with councils. Obviously, some of the questions that have been raised today should be put to the appropriate local authorities, but, as Monica Lennon has already described, that has happened before. In that case, if local authorities cannot deliver, is it time that we reviewed this process to ensure that important process, so important to teachers under training, is carried out effectively? I refer Mr Crawford to one of the answers that I gave to Monica Lennon, which is to indicate that the overwhelming majority of placements have been able to be undertaken and undertaken in a timely fashion. However, there are clearly a number of aspiring teachers who have not been able to secure their placements, and that is frankly not acceptable to me. I will certainly ensure that the actions that I have set out that have been agreed to be taken forward will be pursued by the relevant bodies. I will remain very close to that, but I stress that it is in everybody's interests that those who complain to me about the shortage of teachers to take all necessary action to ensure that we can properly place teachers in placement opportunities within our schools and to enable those individuals to make a contribution to the future of Scottish education. I thank the cabinet secretary. We are now going to turn to, that concludes topical questions.