Secondary school classroom teacher vacancies are at their highest level in at least five years, new data suggests.
The data, shared with Tes by TeachVac, shows the highest recorded number of secondary teacher vacancies in the last five years, with a 12 per cent increase since the last comparable year (2020).
In 2020, there were 19,626 secondary teacher vacancies recorded in three months (between January and March, inclusive). This figure was 22,014 for the same period in 2022 - higher than any of the previous four years.
And TeachVac does not have data for teacher vacancies from 2010 to 2018.
The year 2021 is not thought to be comparable due to a lack of movement in the teacher market during the height of the Covid pandemic.
The three months between January and the end of March each year normally include about half of the annual total of vacancies for teacher posts advertised during any year, and so is thought to be a good indicator of the trend for that year.
The data also shows a 47 per cent increase in the number of vacancies found in March 2022 (9,984) compared to March 2020 (6,811).
TeachVac is a national vacancy service, and it checks each vacancy to try to avoid duplication in its data.
Teacher vacancies
General teacher vacancies (primary and secondary) in the first three months of this year have also risen by 29 per cent compared to 2020.
In 2022, 33,580 overall teacher vacancies were recorded by the end of March, much higher than in 2020 when 25,939 were recorded for the same period.
Design and technology saw the largest increase in vacancies, rising by 51 per cent between 2020 (1,089) and 2022 (1,643).
Business vacancies also rose by 45 per cent, from 701 in 2020 to 1,018 in 2022.
The figure was closely followed by computing, which saw a 44 per cent increase from 828 to 1,191.
Writing in his blog, Professor John Howson, chair at TeachVac, said the increase in recorded vacancies could be down to “more teachers quitting schools in England”.
These teachers could be switching to the tutoring profession or moving to teach abroad, to “reduce their hours, or even retire completely,” he said.
However, he said “one other possibility” was that schools could have brought forward recruitment this year, “so the peak will have been in March rather than in late April, as has been the normal practice in past years”.
Data also shows that there has been a marked rise in headteacher vacancies compared with 2020 figures.
The figures from TeachVac revealed that headteacher vacancies rose by 18 per cent when comparing the first three months of 2020 (957) with the same period this year (1,125).
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Teachers have and continue to be an incredible support for children and young people and are paramount to a child’s development and learning. We now have over 460,000 inspiring teachers in our classrooms across the country, which is 20,000 more than in 2010.
“Whilst teaching remains an attractive and fulfilling profession, we know improvement is needed in some areas to attract and retain staff.
“We have also put in place a range of measures including bursaries worth £24,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £26,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics. We are also offering a £15,000 tax-free bursary for design & technology trainee teachers.”
