Commenting on Teacher recruitment, training and
retention, a report by the House of Commons Education
Committee, published today (Friday), Daniel Kebede,
General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
"As this report shows, the Government has created a crisis in the
recruitment and retention of teachers which is having a
significant detrimental impact on pupils' learning.
"In its utter failure to get a grip of teacher numbers, the
Government has only succeeded in distorting the quality of
education available to young people. As this report shows,
teachers are teaching outside of their specialist subjects and
schools are dropping subjects entirely.
"Teacher recruitment has fallen sharply over the last few years.
More teachers are leaving the profession for reasons other than
retirement than at any other time on record. This is a
catastrophe of the Government's own creation.
"The education system is on its knees. Thanks to a debilitating
lack of school funding, excessive workload and pay that has
fallen way behind both earnings and the cost-of-living, many
graduates have turned their backs on choosing teaching as a
profession. The very same factors are driving those who enter it
out.
“Teacher shortages are system-wide and they need system-wide
corrections on both pay and workload. Piecemeal responses such as
bursaries will never resolve these shortages on their own.
"Increased child poverty and the decimation of mental health
support services and SEND provision has also impacted heavily on
the workload of schools who have been left to pick up the pieces
of a broken society.
"The measures proposed by this report are insufficient and too
piecemeal to meet the challenge of teacher recruitment and
retention. The next Government must address this issue with the
seriousness that is required. A complete review of the system
needs to be undertaken to ensure every child gets the education
they deserve."
