Commenting on
the publication of ITT figures, showing recruitment
levels well below the Government’s own targets,
Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
“The Government’s teacher recruitment
strategy is an abject failure. They have missed
targets for both secondary and primary teacher recruitment.
This is a disaster for our schools and our children.
“There is no hiding from the dire
situation that they have missed their own recruitment targets for
trainee secondary teachers year on year, and at 59% of the target
for secondary teachers this is comfortably the worst in recent
memory. In the lowest-recruited secondary subjects such as
physics, the Government has recruited as few as 1 in 6 of the
trainees they say are needed. Within primary teacher recruitment
they are 7% below target, and this is the eighth time they've
missed the target since 2010.
"It is clear that
the Government's real-terms pay cuts are having a
devastating impact on teacher recruitment and
retention. Teacher pay levels are not sufficient to support
teacher supply and an already critical recruitment and retention
problem is getting even worse. Teachers need an
inflation-proofed pay rise. For those who do start a career
in teaching, the burdens of over-work, external
accountability, and low-reward drive out far too many
within the first few years, wasting their time, talent, and
training costs. Teachers do not feel valued or trusted as
professionals.
“Our children and young people bear
the brunt of this mismanagement and deserve far better. Whilst
retention problems are driven both by the excessive workload
teachers face and poor pay, this recruitment disaster stems more
than anything else from poor pay prospects for teachers.
Government must act on this urgently - there must be a fully
funded pay rise which at least matches inflation if the
Government is to have any chance of hitting its targets next
year.”
