‘I would burn in hell before returning’ – why British teachers are fleeing overseas

[suk44]

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/nov/13/why-british-teachers-fleeing-overseas-international-schools

Article in today's Guardian. Huge number of readers' comments beneath it. Another picture painted of how bad the teacher retention crisis is in the UK.

During this election campaign I look forward to the political parties explaining specifically how they will address this crisis (and not just throwing more money into recruiting more new teachers, as given retention is getting WORSE, it won't have any effect on overall in-service teacher numbers in the UK)

[Perunatop]

Apparently China is a good option.

[Fuzzyspringroll]

We're in Germany.

[TiceCream]

Increased starting salaries won’t tempt teachers. Many who were already earning more than that have escaped for mental health reasons, because the workload and the constant culture of fear and observation is too much. No amount of money would convince me to go back into an environment where I’m being constantly scrutinised and blamed for things beyond my control, I have no life outside work and I have to deal with bad (sometimes threatening) behaviour on a regular basis.

[PastTheGin]

Very, very tempting in this half term of doom!

Honestly, though, they need to get a grips on retention not recruitment. We have already had resignations in half term.

[Cherrypi]

I think they could encourage returnees with money and extra ppa time.

[BobbinThreadbare123]

I would also burn in hell before returning. Hyperbole this is not.

[maisie123]

Went to a student mentoring course recently as our school has started taking students from a different uni. We were told that 50% of primary school NQTs are now leaving after 2 years. They are also finding it hard to attract applications and are having to accept students they wouldn't have looked at a few years ago just to fill their government quota.

[Cam77]

What’s happeing the country’s school is a typical result of Tory Party policy.

1. Massively underfund and then blame failings on ever more demoralized staff.
   
2. End up spending huge amounts to paper over cracks rather than actually make positive improvements you could have made at the beginning (or put the burden for this onto some future government).
   
3. Rinse and repeat.

[TiceCream]

they need to get a grips on retention not recruitment
I agree. They’re already doing a good job of fooling non-teachers into thinking that teaching is a good career. There are plenty of people signing up. The problem is that they scarper once they discover the truth of how awful it is.

[PurpleCrowbar]

[SagelyNodding]

It's not exactly a teachers' paradise here either, but the holidays are better! And we are trusted to do our work without ridiculous data hassles...

[BackforGood]

What @PastTheGin and @Cam77 have both said.

Teaching has never been a career that is going to make you rich. It isn't particularly poor pay that makes people leave, it is the being constantly micromanaged, constantly criticised, and the completely disproportionate amount of ridiculous paperwork expected, compared with time and energy actually teaching, or preparing engaging lessons.

[Introvertedbuthappy]

I agree. Left last summer and won’t go back.