NEU comments on the new Education Secretary

Commenting on the appointment of Gavin Williamson as the new Education Secretary, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“The new Education Secretary must hit the ground running.

“We need to recruit 15,593 new teachers in the next three years, but teacher recruitment and retention problems are serious and getting worse. According to the latest school census, almost a third of teachers (32.3%) leave within five years of qualifying, a record high.

“Teacher workload is amongst the highest in the world and teacher job satisfaction amongst the lowest. High-stakes testing and failing accountability systems continue to have a distorting effect on children’s learning and are the underlying cause of both the overwork and poor job satisfaction of teachers.

"Schools and colleges are still facing the effects of huge funding cuts, teachers and support staff are losing their jobs, and class sizes are rising.

"Past Secretaries of State have failed to make any serious progress on these issues, and all the while children’s education and wellbeing are suffering.”