More than a third of secondary school leaders (38 per cent) have made a reluctant appointment to a teaching position, while half have been unable to interview any candidate because of a weak field, according to a stark new report into the teacher recruitment crisis.
The research, published today by Teacher Tapp and SchoolDash, draws on data from more than 8,000 teachers and leaders in England, surveyed between March and May 2023, and teacher vacancy advertisements published since 2017.
The timing of the report’s data collection captures the majority of recruitment activities that have taken place during the peak recruitment session between March and May as teachers submit their notice to start a new job in September.
The report highlights a 12 per cent rise in secondary job vacancy advertisements this year, following a 28 per cent rise last year compared with before the pandemic.
Primary school leaders also report struggles to recruit, with 28 per cent saying the field was too weak to proceed to the interview stage.
In addition, headteacher recruitment is challenging following a high number of retirements that occurred after a stressful pandemic period.
Teacher recruitment crisis ‘will persist’
And this is being compounded by a drop in deputies’ and senior leaders’ aspiration to become a head, down to 43 per cent from the pre-pandemic figure of 56 per cent.
“We anticipate that the recruitment crisis in secondary schools will persist for several years as pupil rolls continue to rise. Of particular concern is the high level of dissatisfaction among teachers, which may lead to a greater exodus from the profession,” the report states.
“Only 59 per cent of teachers now expect to still be teaching in three years’ time, a significant decrease from the pre-pandemic figures of 74-77 per cent. Regret about training has also increased, with only 58 per cent of teachers indicating they would choose to become a teacher if given the chance again, compared to 71 per cent when asked in 2019.”
It adds: “It was telling that just one in four teachers told Teacher Tapp that they would encourage their own child to become a teacher, while nearly one in five would actively discourage them from doing so. The consequences of this downward trend are evident. A diminishing number of advocates for the teaching profession within the education community is likely to exacerbate an already challenging recruitment situation.”
The report highlights the desire of teachers to be able to make minor adaptations to their working lives, such as the ability to go home during their planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time or occasional time off for special occasions.
However, a scarcity of teachers and budget constraints make this difficult. Most school leaders (70 per cent in primary and 67 per cent in secondary) say they struggle to manage flexible-working requests.
One teacher told researchers that problems in accommodating flexible working included: “[A lack of] consistency for children. Recruitment for the job share. Teachers asking for four days is more difficult than three or two because finding someone for one day is impossible other than supply, which means it isn’t a true job share for anyone and often means more work for the part-time teacher.”
Since 2017, Teacher Tapp says, indicators of teachers’ intentions to remain in the profession had remained relatively consistent, with approximately three-quarters of teachers expressing their intent to continue as educators in three years’ time.
However, against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis and recent strikes, this year marked a significant decline, hitting the lowest recorded figure - 10 percentage points below the previous low. Teachers in their first five years of teaching are typically more likely to be considering leaving. This group’s intentions to remain a teacher have dropped the most, plummeting from 72 per cent in May 2022 to 55 per cent today.
“However, the reality of the teaching profession is that experienced teachers are less inclined to leave, primarily due to the challenges of finding comparable salaries in alternative careers,” the report observes.
Becky Allen, chief analyst at Teacher Tapp and one of the report’s authors, said: “We expect the secondary teacher recruitment challenges to continue to worsen over the next few years as their pupil population rises and as initial teacher training delivers fewer teachers than the sector currently needs.”
And Timo Hannay, founder of SchoolDash, added on this year’s findings: “We appear to be witnessing a perfect storm in which the chronic shortage of teachers is combining with a post-pandemic rise in career moves and an unusually tight labour market. The result is that schools seem to be finding it even more difficult than usual to ensure that they will be fully staffed in September.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the crisis was being driven “by eroded teacher pay, unmanageable workload levels and scant regard for wellbeing”. “To solve it, the government must focus on creating a compelling proposition for a decades-long career in the teaching profession. That means restoring pay, which has fallen by about a fifth in real terms since 2010; reforming inspection; reducing crushing workload and long hours; and investing in the profession by funding schools properly.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The long-standing difficulty of putting subject-qualified teachers at the front of every classroom is intensifying and affects many subjects. All the data - be it the failure to meet graduate recruitment targets or the rising number of vacancies - points towards staff shortages getting worse. This desperate situation has been created by real-terms pay cuts and workload pressures driven by a government that has neglected education and the workforce.”
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
