The many reasons why there’s a teacher shortage

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/12/the-many-reasons-why-theres-a-teacher-shortage

Version 0 of 1.

You report that a teacher shortage and surge in pupils is creating a “perfect storm” in schools (6 October).

Why is there a teacher shortage? Why are “53% thinking of quitting” due to “volume of workload” and wanting “a better work/life balance”?

The government requires teachers to produce volumes of paperwork justifying their classroom planning and recording its results. Irrelevant management theories of evidential accountability have played havoc with teachers’ workloads. The resultant long hours of evening paperwork, coupled with a restrictive national curriculum, testing of pupils on an industrial scale, imposition of arbitrary floor standards for school achievement, gruelling inspections that criticise rather than support school work, performance-related pay where performance cannot be judged fairly, league tables that put schools into competition rather than collaboration, and the bizarre uncertainties of academisation, with local authorities replaced by cross-country academy chains, all contribute to the disillusionment of classroom teachers, the fears of headteachers that they may lose their jobs, and explain not only a shortage of teachers but why it will get worse.

Why is there a shortage of school places? Five years from birth to starting school should be long enough to provide sufficient school places. But no, because national government has taken from local government the erstwhile duty of building enough schools for the children of its area.

My grandparents, parents, myself and my children were all educated well without these problems. Why are my grandchildren’s teachers so bedevilled?Emeritus Professor Michael BasseyNewark, Nottinghamshire

• Teacher shortages? Supply teaching used to be a viable and popular option, both on a casual daily basis and for longer-term placements. Forty years ago every local authority ran its own supply pool. Supply teaching is dominated now by cost-cutting private supply agencies that pay up to £60 a day less than the national rates, with nothing paid into the teachers’ pension scheme.

The majority of supply teachers are over 50, many of them close to retirement. In view of the fact that their experience and professionalism isn’t recognised, many have voted with their feet and left teaching. There isn’t a shortage of teachers. In March 2010 the government acknowledged that 404,600 qualified teachers were not working in state schools.

Private supply agencies cream off anywhere between a third and a half of the money that schools pay for supply. All they do is make a phone call, with no training, no professional development for supply teachers, and six-figure salaries for the CEOs. The NUT is organising a lobby of supply-teaching agencies in London on Wednesday 28 October. What we need is a national register of supply teachers based on the Northern Ireland model – no private agencies, the rate for the job and full pension contributions. That would bring back thousands of supply teachers who have been disillusioned by the agency rip-off.Richard KnightsNUT Supply Teachers’ Network

• Of course private schools are to blame for the failings of the UK’s education system (‘Stop the toffism’, 6 October), because it is precisely those who were educated in these private schools (7% of the population) who make educational policy (for 93% of the population). The chair of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, Chris King, unwittingly underlines this when he (bizarrely) asserts that: “It is clearly absurd to blame the sector that educates 7% of the school population for the educational ills of the other 93%.” No, Chris, it’s exactly right (see above).

Meanwhile, Michael Gove’s dismal legacy becomes more apparent daily with a looming teacher supply shortage as fewer and fewer graduates want to enter a career dominated by targets, data, Ofsted and relentless demonisation by the government and sections of the press. Funding for education continues to drop in real terms as it fails to match increased need from a fast-growing population of school-age children, as well as a growing need for support services for some of these children, such as mental health services like CAMHS, and specialist teachers for other children and young people with special needs. Relentless, forced academisation and the burgeoning of free schools, both wholly unaccountable locally and of hugely variable quality (some have no appropriate accommodation, or qualified staff in particular posts, some may have a rigid faith agenda, etc) all add to the now utterly fragmented educational landscape.

This is what the 93% have to cope with, and, yes, Mr King, the 7% are to blame.Max FishelAssistant headteacher, London

• There are several reasons for the teacher shortages in mathematics and English. Class sizes are higher than average in these subjects (subsidising the often smaller class sizes for other subjects); recalcitrant pupils cannot opt out of these compulsory subjects in years 10 and 11 (even good teachers experience problems dealing with difficult pupils who wish to be elsewhere); and detailed marking and record-keeping has to be performed on an almost daily basis (unlike many other subjects which are marked after a lengthy project).

Incidentally, why are subjects such as food technology deemed to take place in a dangerous environment necessitating small class sizes yet chemistry invariably warrants large class sizes?John HallChester