NEU comments on EEF review into teacher recruitment and retention

Commenting on the Education Endowment Foundation’s review into teacher recruitment and retention including the isssue of financial incentives, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“The ability of teaching to compete against other graduate professions has been hit hard by years of major real term pay cuts since 2010, the imposition of unfair performance related pay and sky-high workload.

‘The NEU is clear that any effective solution to the severe and widespread teacher recruitment and retention problems must include significant improvements to pay and conditions for all teachers. So called targeted approaches, with pay incentives for some teachers but not others, do not solve the existing problems and instead create additional recruitment and retention issues by demoralising the teachers who miss out. The recruitment and retention problem are system wide, and solutions must be equally holistic. That is why the NEU’S call for a fully funded above inflation pay rise for all teachers is essential to solving the recruitment and retention problem.

‘Workload also plays a significant role in the recruitment and retention of teachers. High intense workload and low work life balance are causing teachers to leave the profession in droves, exacerbating the retention crisis in our schools.  Along with improved pay, reducing the drivers of workload and improving work life balance must be a priority for Government and the DfE. The NEU is calling on the STRB to extend its remit to include teacher and leadership workload and will continue to make sure it remains on the agenda”.