Commenting on a report published today by the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC), Kevin Courtney, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“As the PAC report highlights, the problems in attracting
students into STEM subjects are of the Government’s own making.
The increasingly narrow and academic school curriculum alongside
EBacc and Progress 8 performance measures, have resulted in
technical education being practically eradicated pre-16. This has
had the effect of a reduced pipeline to STEM technical education
post-16. Equally concerning is the Government's decision to
unreasonably increase the amount of content as well as the
difficulty of maths GCSE. This will discourage young people from
taking maths post-16 and therefore contribute to STEM shortages.
“A shortage of STEM subject teachers is also a serious problem
and needs to be urgently addressed. Financial incentives are not
the answer. Government urgently needs to address the recruitment
and retention crisis in the profession. The only way to do this
is to make teaching an attractive career option, by reducing the
unmanageable hours worked and paying teachers a fair wage for the
vital work they do.
“The National Education Union has long argued against the
Department for Education’s lack of concern about the poor quality
of some apprenticeships. As the PAC report states this has been
allowed to continue for too long. Young people deserve high
quality apprenticeships that make a difference to their lives and
career prospects. To be saddled with low quality schemes is a
dreadful waste of their time and opportunities. It is high time
that the Government recognised that they have it wrong and worked
with the profession to achieve a clear vision for the education
of all our children and young people, as well as ensuring the
teacher recruitment and retention crisis is resolved.”
