NAHT comments on Prime Minister’s Conservative Party conference speech

Today the Prime Minister used some of his speech at the Conservative Party conference to announce an additional £3,000 payment to entice maths, physics, chemistry and computing teachers to take jobs in schools serving disadvantaged areas.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The Prime Minister is right to highlight the recruitment challenges that many schools are currently facing. However this solution is not ambitious enough, and we also know that similar schemes launched in the past have had very limited impact. The government must be prepared to wrestle with some of the more fundamental problems that are causing the current issues around recruitment and retention in teaching.

“The plans suggested here have not been developed with the benefit of consultation with the education profession. We would urge the Prime Minister to do more to engage with school leaders before making future policy announcements.

“The salaries of teachers and leaders have declined against inflation for the last decade, undermining their real value and making teaching uncompetitive in relation to other professional graduate occupations. The government needs a compelling proposition to encourage entrants to a decades-long professional career in teaching.”