Commenting on statistics released today (Thursday 22 June 2017)
which show an increase in the number of vacancies for teachers in
English state schools and in the number of temporarily-filled
posts,1 Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“These figures are worrying enough in themselves but
represent the tip of the iceberg.
“Schools have to put teachers in front of classes. What the
figures don’t show is the enormous difficulties many have in
doing so, repeatedly having to re-advertise posts, and using a
range of strategies to cover lessons. These may include combining
classes and using teachers who are not specialists in the
subjects they are teaching.
“The problem is that we aren’t attracting enough people into
teaching in the first place, and then we are not retaining enough
of them. The government has to lift the teaching pay cap and
better incentivise teaching, and it has to work with the teaching
profession to develop a career strategy which better develops and
retains staff.
“Teaching should be an exciting, fulfilling and joyful
career, and we all need to work together to make sure that it is,
and that we constantly celebrate this great profession.”
1 School Workforce in
England: November 2016. Department for Education. Table
14. Full-time teacher vacancies, temporarily filled posts and
rates in state-funded schools.
Total number of vacancies in 2016 was 920, compared to 730 in
2015.
Total number of temporarily filled posts was 3,280 in 2016,
compared to 2,870 in 2015.
