Daily Mail,September 11 Teacher shortage reaching crisis levels
Almost three out of four local education authorities in England is experiencing a teacher shortage, a survey showed taken on September 11 shows. 18 per cent of those polled said the problem had reached crisis levels.
The Government is adamant the problem is mainly confined to London and the south east of England but the survey reports difficulties outside of the capital city.
The poll for PA News also found some signs of a shortage in Scotland and Wales while Northern Ireland said there was no problem.
Of the 73 per cent of English LEAs that said their schools were struggling to find suitably qualified staff, half said the shortage was either moderate or severe, while the rest stressed it was slight.
Math and modern languages teachers were hardest to find – a fact ministers have attempted to address by introducing £4,000 ‘golden hellos’ for graduates in those subjects who enter training.
Asked what the Government should do to remedy the situation, the response was that society needed to value teachers more highly. Just under two thirds believed a rise in basic pay, along the lines of the 21 per cent increase over three years recently offered by the Scottish Executive, would help, although one council said it would not make much difference.
Union leaders said the survey findings proved they were right to say the teacher shortage had become acute.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Employment said the Government had taken ‘decisive steps’ to make teaching more attractive. It had introduced performance-related pay, giving good teachers an immediate £2,000 increase. All postgraduate trainees got a salary of £150 a week, while those training to teach shortage subjects got another £4,000.
Meanwhile, applications to train were up and there were 7,500 more teachers in classrooms in England and Wales than there were two years ago, the spokesman continued.
‘There is more to do but at a time of a strong economy and a buoyant graduate recruitment market, the incentives we have introduced are bucking an eight year long decline in teacher recruitment,’ said the spokesman.
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