Parliament admits crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, asks for advice

[noblegiraffe]

Robin Walker, new Chair of the Ed Select Committee has said:

“The current teacher shortages in some subjects in state-funded schools make it more challenging for schools to provide high-quality education across the country. It is imperative that we take a comprehensive and nuanced look at the difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. We must urgently identify solutions to ensure pupils receive consistent and quality teaching, and that teachers feel supported in their roles."

They want evidence from interested parties on how this can be addressed
https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/3081

I wonder if they will be looking at Gillian Keegan until recently refusing to negotiate with the teaching unions for spurious reasons and threatening to give any teacher pay rise money to nurses, the yet another pay cut the government is advising for teachers from September, the schools inspectorate casually dropping the death of a headteacher (that the inspection possibly contributed to) into an Ofsted report and then quietly removing it following backlash, the refusal to pause inspections to conduct a review, the leak of contemptuous governmental WhatsApps about teachers being lazy during covid....and that's just been the past few weeks.

Teacher recruitment and vacancy data that has just been published looks dreadful. That means even more kids without teachers next year.

Serious action is urgently needed.

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/teacher-labour-market-in-england-annual-report-2023/

Too little, too late I fear.

There's a crisis that needs urgently addressing! Quick, set up an inquiry!

I think they're going to have to turn to technology to provide the answer. My ds received his education online via Interhigh. Sometimes there were quite high numbers in the classes with just one teacher teaching from their home online. At his college, the slides from the lesson are available online if he misses a class for whatever reason or if he just wants to refresh his knowledge.

A centralised teaching centre broadcasting lessons online with unqualified/part qualified staff supervising classes? Obviously there would need to be a way of answering questions or clarifying points raised during the lesson, but I'm sure this could be addressed. Students would need to be able to sit still and listen and have the motivation to learn, so the ridiculous behaviour problems that are currently apparent would need to be sorted out. There'd be no teamwork/collaborative sessions within lessons, it would be very much this is XYZ, now learn it type approach, but at least it would be an education. My ds ended up with nine good grades in his GCSEs, so it can be done. It's high time the population realised what a privilege it is to receive an education and stop pissing about and taking everything for granted.

We voted for this, just as we did to wreck the NHS too, there is, arguably, an even worse crisis.

The Tories wont address the issues in either, they don't use the NHS or state education, its a non issue for them.

Online? thats a laugh, the wealthy of course will pay for tuition, face to face.

I wonder if education will go the way of dentistry? just something the wealthy can access.

A centralised teaching centre broadcasting lessons online with unqualified/part qualified staff supervising classes?

We conducted this experiment during lockdown. It didn't go well.

Students would need to be able to sit still and listen and have the motivation to learn

I think you’d find this would be the most difficult part. How do you think it might be achieved? I can only think of mass hypnotism or powerful drugs.

"Students would need to be able to sit still and listen and have the motivation to learn"

Are they thick as mince, or being deliberately obtuse?

It's hardly a secret as to why there's a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching and the same in just about every other public sector employer.

Over a decade of pay stagnation, erosion of pensions, coupled with underfunded services making people's jobs impossible.

I work for another public sector employer and we've just completed a similar exercise. Management and the minister wanted to know why recruitment and retention was so awful. Staff focus groups were held etc.

Only for the conclusion to be exactly what everyone has been telling them for years. You don't pay people enough and there's no investment in facilities. Our graduate trainees are paid a couple of £k above NMW. Our admin grades generally are NMW and the lower pay scales have been bumped up as NMW has increased, so there's no recognition for the admin grades as they undertake more complex work, or manage other staff.

Our graduates generally get qualifications and leave, or they leave when they realise that all except the bottom point of the pay scale is pure fiction and they see their university peers earning 2/3 times what they earn 5-10 years post qualification.

They're currently making all the right noises about addressing the issues, but unless any pay increases are funded, it's obviously going to fall apart at some point and I also fear it is too little too late.

Born

I work for another public sector employer and we've just completed a similar exercise. Management and the minister wanted to know why recruitment and retention was so awful. Staff focus groups were held etc.

It's to give the appearance of doing something, without actually doing anything.

I'm sure this was in Yes Minister.

I don’t think online teaching should be totally dismissed. It takes slightly different skills and experience and can’t really be compared to emergency measures in lockdown. Tbh quite a number of kids hate classroom disruption, struggle in large secondaries, are bullied or whatever and may do better with some online learning. It’s always defaulted to those who are disruptive and don’t want to learn!
in terms of what to do surely it’s time to pay a premium for the areas that are short. It’s interesting to see the ‘science’ figures are heavily skewed by the lack of physics teachers. I don’t think it’s just about ability to earn money elsewhere but perhaps also somewhat about the personalities that are drawn to certain subjects and their subsequent desire to teach

True bungle but t's a solution for some, not all.

Some subjects simply cannot be taught online.

My sinking feeling is many face the axe. bye bye arts education.

It’s interesting to see the ‘science’ figures are heavily skewed by the lack of physics teachers. I don’t think it’s just about ability to earn money elsewhere but perhaps also somewhat about the personalities that are drawn to certain subjects and their subsequent desire to teach

It's also about a general lack of graduates in STEM areas.

Don't be fooled by the maths recruitment being so close to target, they inexplicably reduced the target, we actually need way more maths teachers than the target suggests.

It takes slightly different skills and experience and can’t really be compared to emergency measures in lockdown.

The main problem with online learning during lockdown was lack of engagement from pupils. I don't know how not being in lockdown would improve engagement.

Certainly on strike days when we had Y11 all in the hall 'learning' on laptops, they spent the entire day pissing around despite being supervised by SLT.

1. more pay
2. ability to remove disruptive pupils so that teachers can actually teach

The government might be happy for the masses to be educated in this way. It's obviously substandard, but then the teaching that's currently on offer is also deteriorating due to underfunding.

But do you think Eton and Winchester will be using this type of teaching? Of course not.

It's a quality education for the elites, and dross for the rest of us.

Yesterday, members of the NEU found out that the government not only refused to fund a reasonable, line with inflation pay rise but that the government also refused to deal with OFSTED meaningfully, support workload or even ensure that teachers aren’t constantly covering colleagues or break/lunch times.

The Tory government are tanking state children’s education because they don’t give a flying fuck. Let’s stop pretending that online learning is the answer. Anyone in a classroom post pandemic knows how badly that failed. Demand better for your children.

I am very happy to be a ‘left teaching in England' statistic. I get a little thrill of happiness and feel quite proud of it.

THAT'S a shocking thing to admit and at the heart of all that is wrong.

Workload is way too high (all of it is doable, but not all at once by one person all of the time)

Burnout is way too high.

Behaviour has got worse (no support - always the teacher's fault)

Too easy for leadership to try to save money by bullying out older (more expensive) staff though capability

Average age of teachers have dropped (you need the older, more experienced staff - they're not dinosaurs, they’re experienced… and maybe have seen it all before)

^ I didn’t even mention money… not something that drove me out, ironically.

Hilarious post!🤣🤣l was a secondary school teacher for 27 years. It’s as easy as you suggest!🤥

My Dd is perfectly behaved. She had ASD and can’t deal with Teams.

Online learning?

What a cool idea. They could outsource it to one of their friends. And then they don't have to worry about them pesky teachers and collapsing school buildings.

maybe it’s back to the old school days, rows of desks and much less interaction, bigger classes like lecture theatres. It might not have gone well in lockdown but if it’s what we get from not having enough teachers we will have to deal with it. More will go private no doubt and there will likely be a market for cheaper end independent schools. The wealthy will as always supplement any subpar teaching with private tuition. Apart from that it looks like teachers as they are known today will be a dying breed soon.

Retention has been a huge issue in teaching for many years. What has brought it to the attention of those who have had their heads stuck up their backsides in the sand is that recruitment is currently at an all time low. In the past the retention gaps have been plastered over by newly qualified teachers filling up the losses for a year or so before themselves being replace by other newly qualified teachers. In many schools instead of a healthy spread of teachers with varying levels of experience there is a dearth of teachers with more than five years experience.

When schools and teachers are treated with utter contempt by governments and the general public then this is the result.

How about paying more and getting back to an age when teaching was a profession, with significant standing?

Instead of a starting wage which is just £450 above the monthly national min wage & thats before higher pension contributions are taken into account, student loans, 3 years study and a lot of debt.

Its not a fantastic package, so of course few want to do it.

Unfortunately, its not the wealthy's kids who will be tomo's nurses, engineers, trades, let alone teachers, so if we don't do more to make teaching an attractive role, we as a country will continue with skilled labour shortages etc.

The real answer starts with a change of government, but that is not the role of a Select Committee.