NASUWT COMMENTS ON TEACHER RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION REPORT

Commenting on the Education Select Committee’s report into the recruitment and retention of teachers, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, said:

“The NASUWT has been presenting evidence of the deepening teacher recruitment crisis for some time but the Government is in denial.

“The Public Accounts Committee and now the Education Select Committee have both warned that ministers have no clear plan to address these issues and that the Government’s analysis of current and future teacher supply needs is seriously flawed.

“This report should act as a wake-up call to ministers that falling back on sticking plaster solutions such as the failed National Teaching Service will do nothing to address the systemic causes of the teacher supply crisis.

“It is the Government’s own policies which have resulted in excessive and increasing teacher workloads, dwindling pay, starting salaries which are increasingly uncompetitive with other graduate professions and the relentless pressure of the high-stakes accountability regime. These factors are driving existing teachers out of the profession, sapped of energy and enthusiasm for the job, and deterring new entrants.

“The committee is clear that we have a serious national teacher recruitment and retention issue which is affecting all subjects and all localities.

“In the face of the overwhelming and growing evidence of the problem, the Government must face up to the crisis it has created.”