Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, comments on the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) School Teacher Labour Market Annual Report, which finds that recruitment and retention are improving but shortages persist in some subjects.
“While it is great to see this improving picture on teacher recruitment and retention, it won’t feel like that on the ground in our schools and colleges because teacher shortages have been so dire for so long.
“It will take time for the current crop of initial teacher trainees to feed through into classrooms and gain the experience necessary to confidently deliver specialist subjects where there have been long-standing recruitment difficulties, particularly as secondary recruitment overall is still below target.
“There are also additional pressures on schools serving disadvantaged communities – where teacher shortages are often the most acute. This is not helped by Ofsted inspections and performance tables which effectively penalise these schools.
“Ensuring that teacher pay is competitive and attracts and keeps people in the profession is essential, and it is equally important that schools and colleges are given the funding to afford these pay awards, rather than being expected by the government to make efficiencies, which in reality means more cuts.
“It is also beyond time that we get to grips with the workload and wellbeing crisis affecting the profession, and dial down the high stakes of an excessive and punitive accountability system.”