The House of Commons Education Committee has today (Tuesday 21
February) published a report on the recruitment and retention of
teachers which shows that the shortage of teachers is a
continuing challenge for the education sector in England.
Malcolm Trobe, Interim General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “The findings of the
Education Committee’s report show the urgent need for the
government to develop a wide-ranging strategy to improve the
recruitment and retention of teachers and to work closely with
the teaching profession in doing so. The crisis in teacher supply
has a direct impact on the education that schools are able to
provide to their pupils. It means that important subjects like
maths and science have to be covered by teachers who are not
specialists in these subjects and that schools have to
increasingly rely on supply staff. Schools want to be able to put
permanent teachers who are experts in their fields in front of
classes and this is what parents and pupils rightly want too. If,
as a country, we are to compete in a globalised environment it is
absolutely vital that we are able to do so.
“The committee’s report says that a key driver for teachers
considering leaving the profession is unmanageable workload. It
is important for people to understand that the current education
funding crisis is contributing significantly to these workload
pressures. Schools are having to cut the number of teaching and
support staff, and this inevitably means more work for those who
remain. We would also point out that successive caps on teachers’
pay over several years have greatly devalued salaries in real
terms and this issue also needs to be addressed. More investment
in education should be a national priority.”
