Responding to a new Sutton Trust survey which found senior school
leaders were struggling to recruit teachers and increasingly have
to cut school trips, support staff and sport activities, Paul
Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“These shocking figures lay bare how a continuing funding and
recruitment crisis is preventing many schools from offering
children, including some of the most disadvantaged, the rich
education they deserve.
“School leaders are struggling with basic recruitment of
teachers, and with teacher training numbers again looking likely
to miss targets, a clear picture of teacher and leader shortages
is emerging.
"But schools are also being forced to pursue an increasingly
narrow core curriculum because they cannot afford to offer
cultural and sporting activities which level up opportunities and
enrich children’s knowledge and wellbeing.
"The government needs to recognise that school leaders
desperately need more funding and make a serious offer to end the
industrial dispute which reflects the real-term pay cuts,
crippling workload and high-stakes accountability faced by
dedicated staff.
“Instead, ministers have proposed that schools should fund
below-inflation pay rises from already stretched, inflation-hit
budgets, a delusional approach which will strengthen the
perception that teaching is no longer an attractive profession
and make it harder for leaders to offer children a first-rate
education.”
