Commenting on the National Foundation for Education Research’s
new report on the teacher labour market, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint
General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The NFER is right to note that any improvement in teacher supply
due to the pandemic will be short-lived. They are certainly not
enough to compensate for the long period of missed recruitment
targets and the increasing problems with teacher retention.
Attacks on teacher pay contributed to those problems and the
planned pay freeze will create new problems.
The NFER is also right to highlight the adverse impact of the
Government's planned pay freeze for teachers. The impact of the
pay freeze is not just a "medium term problem" as described in
the NFER report. The pay freeze will hit teachers hard in
September 2021, when they will see their pay cut yet again in
real terms.
As teacher pay is frozen in September 2021, inflation is expected
to be higher and other graduate professionals will be getting pay
increases. The net result will be a significant teacher pay cut
in real terms against inflation, combined with a growing gap
between teacher pay and pay for other graduate professions. That
is a recipe for more teacher recruitment and retention problems,
when we are still living with the legacy of years of
under-recruitment and significant losses of experienced teachers.
One in four teachers work more than 60 hours per week and the
pandemic has only made things worse. This is completely
unacceptable, and it is one of the key reasons why one third of
newly qualified teachers leave within five years. Over the last
few years, the Government has made efforts to draw attention to
ways of reducing workload, which the NEU has welcomed, but this
report and others continue to show it is not working. It is
obvious to teachers and school leaders that successive education
secretaries are failing to solve the problem. Government must
face the fact that it is the culture of excessive accountability,
brought on by the Department for Education and Ofsted, which acts
as the main driver of workload. Until the Government faces up to
reality, workload will continue to increase, and greater numbers
will continue to leave the profession”.
