Commenting on government plans to boost teacher supply capacity
by asking ex-teachers to join supply agencies, Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“The government is right to identify staff shortages as a
critical issue for schools as we head into a very uncertain time
in which the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is likely to further
drive up levels of teacher absence. Put simply, schools cannot
operate without teachers.
“We support anything which may help to address this problem and
we hope that the government’s call to ex-teachers to join supply
agencies improves a situation in which many schools have been
experiencing problems in obtaining supply cover because of the
high level of demand.
“However, this is all coming very late in the day for a situation
which is already critical and has been so for some time, and the
initiative will need to be well publicised, promoted and
supported in order to have any degree of success.
“It is also important to emphasise that even then it is very
unlikely to be enough to solve a problem at such a scale as this,
and the government does need to do much more in terms of
supporting control measures, such as testing and ventilation, in
order to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.”
