NEU comments on the EPI report on teacher shortages

Commenting on The teacher labour market in England: shortages, subject expertise and incentives, a report published today by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), Nansi Ellis, Assistant General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“Teacher recruitment and retention is a huge policy challenge – and it cannot be dealt with by divisive and overly simplistic measures.

“The workload situation in schools and the punishing pressures of accountability are having a deterrent effect on recruitment, and are pushing too many teachers to leave the classroom. 

“Putting the emphasis on pay supplements to maths and science teachers will not deal with these critical issues – it’s an attempt to find a cheap solution to the problem of uncompetitive pay levels across the whole range of teaching. And the EPI’s encouragement of Government to rush to a solution not yet fully tested is far from ideal.

“The Government has to face up to the fact that its policies have created a system which makes prospective teachers think twice about their choice of career. It would be unfortunate if this EPI report encouraged it in a quest for partial, sticking-plaster solutions.”