Nearly three-quarters of teachers (72 per cent) have considered leaving the profession because of the “negative impact” of Ofsted, a poll by the NEU teaching union reveals.
In total, out of 2,398 teacher members polled by the union from 11-12 June, 3 per cent said this was due to “the pressure the watchdog puts on your mental health”, 14 per cent said it was due to “the unnecessary workload Ofsted creates” and 55 per cent said it was due to a combination of both.
More primary school teachers than secondary teachers told the union they were considering leaving because of Ofsted, with nearly four-fifths (79 per cent) saying they had considered exiting the profession, compared with 64 per cent in secondary.
Meanwhile, 98 per cent of respondents said preparing for an Ofsted inspection had a negative impact on their mental health and 84 per cent said it had a “negative impact on teaching and learning in schools”.
One in 10 of all qualified teachers left the state-funded sector in the academic year 2022-23 and almost half leave within 10 years of entering the profession, according to recent government statistics.
In response to the poll, Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary, said it came as “no surprise that the appalling stress, demoralisation and workload pressure is driving too many teachers to leave this vital profession”.
“Despite the inspectorate’s assurances that it understands that change is needed, it is clear that the toxic inspection approach sits at the heart of the teacher retention challenge,” Mr Kebede added.
Ofsted is currently carrying out a “Big Listen” consultation exercise, which seeks the views of teachers, parents and pupils on the inspection system.
However, school leaders have warned that the watchdog’s consultation does not go far enough, with one headteachers’ union saying that Ofsted in its current form is “dangerous”.
Most teachers want Ofsted scrapped
This opinion was seemingly held by many of those polled by the NEU, more than three-quarters of whom (76 per cent) said they hope the next government will abolish Ofsted and “replace it with a completely new accountability system”.
Only 1 per cent of respondents said they want school inspections to stay as they are.
Labour has pledged to replace single-word Ofsted inspection judgements with a scorecard system if elected next month, while the Liberal Democrats have also expressed an interest in a scorecard approach.
However, Labour’s plan to consult on scrapping Ofsted single-word judgements received a negative response among voters polled by Public First.
The Conservative Party, meanwhile, has said it is committed to backing Ofsted to “provide clear judgements to parents on the quality and safety of schools” in its manifesto this week.
This came after the Department for Education said that although it “will continue to look at alternative systems”, it believes there are significant benefits from having an Ofsted overall effectiveness grade for schools.
Ofsted declined to comment on the NEU poll findings.
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