Julia Harnden, Deputy Director of Policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, comments on a report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which states that the fall in real terms teacher pay is fuelling ongoing recruitment and retention pressures.
“It is clear from this report that teacher pay continues to fall short of where it needs to be to support recruitment and retention – and that this is particularly the case in FE where a decade of inadequate funding from successive governments has created a pay gap that is more like a chasm. And it is the question of funding that goes to the heart of the matter. Teacher pay awards of the level required to meet workforce challenges can only be delivered if schools and colleges have the money to afford them and too often that is not the case. This in turn leads to providers being left with no alternative other than to make cuts which can lead to increased workloads as there are fewer people to deliver provision. It is a vicious circle that has to be broken in order to ensure that schools and colleges have the workforces they need – and that they can pay them.”