Responding to the publication of the Department for Education’s
Working lives of teachers and leaders report, Julie
McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“The Department for Education’s own report finds that school
leaders and teachers are shouldering unsustainable workloads, so
it is a mystery why there is so little government action to
address this problem. These high levels of workload are driven by
systemic issues – such as chronic underfunding of education, and
the punitive pressure of performance tables and Ofsted
inspections – and are therefore something that the government can
and should address. Its failure to take concerted action to
reduce workloads is – alongside pay erosion – the reason why it
is increasingly difficult to recruit and retain enough teachers
and this dire situation is putting at risk educational provision
and standards.
“We have been pressing the government to release the findings of
this important survey for months, and it is extremely
disappointing that it has taken so long for them to do so. The
delay has meant that not only was the report not included in the
Department for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’
Review Body, but other statutory consultees including ASCL were
unable to refer to it in their own submissions. We do intend to
refer to this survey in our oral evidence session with the STRB,
as it lays bare the crisis facing the teaching profession and
underscores the urgent need for funded pay increases as well as a
systemic overhaul of workload and conditions of service.”
