Why is there a teacher shortage and what can we do about it?
I have a confession to make. I am one of the 300,000 qualified teachers not working in a school. And, with a record 50,000 teachers leaving the profession last year, it appears this club has unfortunately gained quite a few new members. On top of that, half of those still in schools say they are considering leaving in the next 2 years.
And teacher retention isn’t the only problem schools are struggling with. The government has failed to hit its recruitment targets for 3 years in a row, with a 12% shortfall of trainees for this year. This is as pupil numbers start to swell, with nearly 900,000 more children expected to enter the education system over the next 10 years.
England is facing a teacher shortage – a recruitment and retention crisis (or “challenge”, if you're Nick Gibb). So far, the reaction from the Department for Education has not been promising. There are, for example, generous bursaries for the worst-hit subjects but concerns have been expressed by a few teacher educators that some of those trainees receiving these substantial bursaries have no intention of continuing teaching beyond their training year and merely see it as a relatively easy way to earn £30,000 whilst gaining work experience. On top of that, as Professor Andy Goodwyn points out, “throwing a huge amount of money at a few trainees doesn’t raise the profile of the profession.” Nor does it attempt to recognise why both potential and trained teachers are being driven away. And that is what many suspect to be the problem – the Department for Education just does not get it (or doesn’t want to).
The reasons behind both the shortfall in teacher trainees and what drives qualified teachers to leave are complex and varied (as is often reflected in John Howson’s excellent blog). And it isn’t only England suffering from this problem. But if the government wants to make steps towards solving it, it has to appreciate that a profession dominated by endless bureaucracy, targets, inspections and a high-stakes testing system, the results of which can be surprisingly unpredictable depending on the whims of examination boards, isn’t exactly an attractive proposition (as this article makes clear). What educator, passionate about their subject and the opportunity to share it with young people, wants to endlessly teach to the test, with no time nor reward for creative thought, for teacher or learner?
This is not to say that the teaching workforce is devoid of creativity – far from it. As exemplified by the teachers across our Family of Academies and beyond, many of those who work in schools aim to be creative educators. Our teachers, for example, have completely embraced developing their creative capacities through engaging with educational research and practising disciplined innovation, demonstrated by their involvement in the RSA’s Licensed to Create publication and Research Rich Schools resource. But they’re fighting against a top-down accountability system for which reform is long overdue and which many suspect to be a main driving force behind the current crisis.
RSA Academies, in partnership with the University of Warwick, are holding an RSA Event on ‘How do we tackle the teacher recruitment crisis?’ at 1pm on 26th November. Please click here to book your place.
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I was a teacher in the 1960s - at that time our classroom was our castle - we taught to a curriculum of course but in our own way and hopefully in a way that would inspire our children. I left because the rewards at the time did not match the needs of my growing family - we were always on the edge of debt. So I took an educational post with a major multi-national company which challenged my perceptions of education and put an emphasis on creative ways of learning.
My son is a teacher. He is completely de-motivated by an education system that has become politicised, robotic and bureaucratic. He has little opportunity to exercise discretion or to use his creative talents in a school of equally de-motivated pupils that badly needs some original thinking. He would leave too if he could find alternative employment.
So how can schooling be transformed into a mind-opening, horizon-widening experience for staff and pupils alike? How about these 5 to start with
1. Use the talents, skills, experiences, ideas of the whole community around the school - parents, company staff, residents etc to deliver a curriculum that will bring reality and interest to learning (as they do in many Australian schools.)
2. Ensure that the social support services are available close to schools so that educational and behavioural deficits are dealt with as soon as they arise. (as they do in Finland)
3. Concentrate on developing skills and values as well as subjects in the curriculum - problem-solving, information-handling, communicating formally and informally, thinking, meditating, adaptability, empathy - the list is much longer.
4. Link all pupils with pupils in other schools in other countries and develop a means of collaborative learning between them.
5. Scrap the hugely costly and mind-numbing examination system that tests mainly the memorisation of facts and knowledge in favour of a system of continuous assessment which is an integral part of the learning process.
None of these are rocket science, but they do entail a mind-shift. Many fellows would have other ideas and recommendations. Time for a debate?
Thank you for your comment Norman, the 5 ideas you outline definitely resonate. We have recently set up an Innovative Education Network at the RSA, to kick-start such a debate. Details are here if you are interested in joining: https://www.thersa.org/action-and-research/rsa-projects/creative-learning-and-development-folder/innovative-education/
Thank-you Roisin. Happy to join the debate. I feel that there is a need for some original thinking in education and who better than RSA fellows who live creativity.
Points very well made Roisin. It's an enormous problem ... I think we've yet to fully grasp the consequences. And given that the provision of school places and a decent education for our kids is a fairly basic clause in our social contract with government, their failure in this could be far worse for them than they are making out.
There are all sorts of reasons why people - like you and I - who could teach in schools, chose not to. For me, having had a few years of experience working in a fast-paced, exciting and positive marketing sector before re-training in the late '90s, it was the heady mix of staffroom politics, bureacracy, well intentioned but demotivating advice from mentors, and no apparent room for new thinking, that did for me. I've worked with and for schools ever since, and have the utmost respect for the people in them that sweat the tough stuff, but I've also seen the things that put me off get worse.
I wonder if there's any merit in asking the 300,000 qualified but not-teaching teachers what they are doing, why they left, and what it would take to get them back. As a member of Tom Gilliford's 'faculty', I'd be up for helping define this further, and wonder whether the DfE would consider funding it, providing contact details for the 300,000 (they know where we live!!!). As above, it's easy to underestimate just how serious this issue is for them.
I completely agree, particularly the need to ask the questions you pose about why teachers leave and what they go on to do. Pearson and LKMco recently published an interesting report exploring why people go into teaching and stay there (https://www.pearson.com/news/announcements/2015/october/why-teach--new-research-explores-why-people-choose-to-go-into-te.html) - it would be interesting to follow this up with an in-depth survey for those who have left or are planning to leave the profession. Perhaps this is something to discuss further with the Faculty?
The whole system is faulty and proceeds in an ad hoc fashion. We need a radical overhaul starting with the identification of an agreed philosophy of education (what? how? where?), an agreed psychology of learning (consolidation of knowledge? skills and their development? contexts? partners? roles of learner and others?).
We also need to consider how buildings and facilities should be utilised for the benefit, not only of pupils, but for the wider community also.
Thank you for this excellent article. A system that routinely breaks its teachers is itself broken and no longer fit for purpose.
Whilst there are some fundamental issues regarding excessive bureaucracy, pre-inspection distractions and 'teaching to the test' to be addressed, there are in the interim collaborations that can at least support teaching staff. Enabling teachers to teach is in the best interests of business who seek an educated thinking workforce, as well as providing fulfilment for the teaching profession. At last week's RSA forum in Guildford, ideas included encouraging part time MA students into schools in mutually beneficial ways, and businesses undertaking careers work, with preparation for work talks to help connect school performance with what happens next. Chambers of Commerce can be useful connectors to business and making connections between schools and universities is worth pursuing.
Thanks for your comment Christine, it's a really pertinent point you make and one we are addressing for our schools in the Family of Academies by beginning to make links with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the West Midlands. There is also the new government-backed Careers and Enterprise Company (http://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/) to encourage partnerships between schools and businesses but it remains to be seen how successful this will be!