ASCL response to NFER report on school workforce crisis

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, commented on the NFER’s Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2023, which shows a huge increase in teacher vacancies

“Teacher shortages have been a problem for many years, but the situation has sunk to a new low in the wake of the pandemic. It seems some existing teachers took stock of their careers and decided on jobs that were better paid, less pressured, and offered hybrid working, while graduates are less attracted to teaching for the same reasons. It is a very sad situation because teaching should be a fantastic, fulfilling, enriching career. Instead, it has been comprehensively devalued by a government that has cut pay in real-terms, failed to tackle workload pressures, and subjected schools and colleges to an incredibly harsh system of performance tables and Ofsted inspections. The result is that the education system is creaking with the under-supply of its most valuable resource – teachers.”