Responding to the National Foundation for Educational Research
(NFER) study on teacher supply and the use of non-specialist
teachers, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “These findings underscore the
scale of the recruitment and retention crisis in education.
“Our own recent survey of more than 750 state-sector school and
college headteachers and principals found that 95% have been
struggling to recruit teachers, with 65% experiencing difficulty
with teacher retention. They also reported challenges in
recruiting support staff. The Department for Education has
repeatedly missed its targets for recruiting secondary teachers,
while nearly a third of teachers leave the profession within five
years of qualifying. All this has resulted in a severe shortage
of teachers and left many schools with no choice but to use
non-specialists for some lessons. Schools deploy and support
these staff as best they can, and the staff involved work with
great commitment and professionalism, but clearly this is not an
ideal situation and teacher shortages represent a clear threat to
educational standards.
“Workload pressures and pay levels are the main reasons for the
difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers. This is
unsurprising when pay has fallen by 20% in real-terms since 2010,
and school budgets have been squeezed by government underfunding
leaving schools trying to do more with less. This year’s teacher
pay award is significantly below the rate of inflation and yet no
additional government funding was given to schools this year for
them to be able to pay for it, putting even more pressure on
their budgets.
“The money announced for education in last week’s Autumn
Statement for the next two years is welcome, but far more needs
to be done to tackle the major challenges faced by the sector and
we echo calls for a renewed focus on recruitment and retention.
The government must work with the sector to produce a long-term
strategy, underpinned by fair pay and workload but also
considering more opportunities for professional development and
flexible working.”
