Union chiefs have sounded the alarm after latest data showed the
government was on track to miss its secondary teacher recruitment
targets by nearly half
ahead of the new academic year.
Analysis of figures for August,
the last month before training courses begin, shows recruitment
of only 52% compared to the government target.
Just 13,788 candidates have been recruited, recruited subject to
conditions, or have deferred places. That is well short of the
government target of 26,360, which was increased by 26% for the
year, despite a significant increase in bursary payments for
those choosing secondary teacher training courses.
School leaders’ union NAHT and teaching union the National
Education Union say this will compound a growing recruitment and
retention crisis in schools as they host a joint debate on the
issue at the TUC’s annual conference in Liverpool.
The fringe event, Resolving the Crisis in
Education, takes place from 12.45-2pm today (TUESDAY 12
SEPTEMBER) and will discuss what needs to be done to tackle the
crisis and deliver the best possible education for children.
The unions cite years of real-terms pay and funding cuts,
increased workload, and the toll taken by high-stakes Ofsted
inspections as key reasons for the crisis. Teachers and leaders’
salaries have lost around a fifth of their value against
inflation since 2010.
Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for secondary teachers has
consistently underrecruited almost every year for the last
decade. Primary underrecruited in 2019 and 2022, and while the
target for primary teachers may be reached this time around, it
was cut by 21% this year.
The Department for Education (DfE) points to record numbers of
teachers in schools, but fails to mention that the number of
pupils in state funded schools in England has risen by almost
double the rate of the teaching workforce. The DfE reported a
50% increase in teacher
and leadership vacancies in 2022.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT,
said: “Pupils, parents and school leaders see the damaging impact
of this crisis every day at a time when they have learning has
already been hit by the pandemic and now the crumbly concrete
emergency.
“More children are being taught by teachers with no qualification
in the subject they are teaching, by teaching assistants, or by
often costly supply staff.
“For school leaders and teachers it’s a vicious cycle, because
staffing vacancies add to unsustainable workload and can harm
their wellbeing, prompting more to consider their future in what
should be a richly rewarding profession.
“The government must rip up its failed recruitment and retention
strategy and replace it with a new vision which restores
education as a career graduates aspire to. That means at the very
least immediate action to tackle crushing workload and
fundamentally reform Ofsted, as well as a plan to reverse more
than a decade of real-terms pay cuts.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary at the National Education Union,
said: “No matter the efforts to talk up its education record,
this government has been missing its own recruitment targets year
after year. This is not a sustainable situation, and the reasons
behind it are all too clear. Chronic underfunding, some of the
longest working hours in Europe, and real-terms cuts to pay, are
driving many out of the profession. Not enough are coming into
teaching because less stressful and better paid jobs are
available elsewhere.
“Teaching is a vocation, yet this government is clearly failing
to do enough to keep teachers and attract more. For children,
this is leading directly to a discontinuity in their education.
"A government which truly had education at the heart of its
priorities would not tolerate this situation. The School Teachers
Review Body (STRB) made it very clear in its most recent report,
that it will be less costly in the long run to act sooner rather
than later. Investment is essential to halt the worsening
recruitment and retention crisis. The cost of failure is too
high."
The unions say that even once teachers are trained, retention is
a huge issue. Nearly 40,000 teachers quit the profession last
year for reasons other than retirement – almost nine per cent
of the whole teaching workforce.
The Department for Education’s 2022 School Workforce Census shows
that one in five (19.9%) teachers leave within two years of
qualifying, and almost one in three (31.3%) leaves within five
years.
In the first year of the roll out of the Early Career Framework,
intended to stem the flow of new teachers quitting, numbers
leaving actually increased.
Leaving rates among school leaders are enormous. Across
both phases about a third (31%) of all school leaders appointed
aged under 50 leave their post within five years, of whom more
than half (53%) quit teaching in state-funded
schools.
As well as the two union general secretaries, other speakers at
the event, which is open to all conference delegates, will
include TUC Assistant General Secretary, Kate Bell.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
Final figures for the year will be known in late November/early
December, with last minute admissions still happening right now
and take up of places still to be confirmed.
