Where have all our teachers gone? Survey reveals move to tutoring

An online local services marketplace has recorded a 170% increase in the amount of private tutors who registered on its platform since the start of the academic year 2015/16.
A recent survey has revealed that three quarters of these tutors used to be teachers and almost half of them cited the number of hours they had to work as the main reason they left teaching. The biggest rise in teachers making the switch was seen in London, followed by Birmingham and Manchester respectively.
Bidvine.com surveyed its 2,144 private tutors and discovered that three quarters (74%) previously worked in the teaching sector and almost half (47%) confirmed that they left teaching because of the hours they had to work.
The survey was commissioned following a recent report from the Commons Education Select Committee found the UK government has missed teacher recruitment targets for five consecutive years. The report strongly communicated that more emphasis needs to be put on teacher retention.
According to the survey, a key reason for teachers leaving the profession was workload, with more than two thirds (67%) saying it was the main reason they chose to quit. A third said they left due to unrealistic targets for student testing results (32%), just less than a fifth (18%) said unsatisfactory pay and more than a tenth (13%) cited poor treatment from students as the main reason they left teaching.
We also discovered that London has the biggest increase in teachers swapping to private tutoring, with more than four fifths (82%) of London based respondents making the switch. Birmingham came second with 79%, followed by Manchester at 78%.
Russ Morgan, co-founder of Bidvine.com, said,
“The recent report from the Commons Education Select Committee prompted us to investigate how many of our private tutors were previously teachers and were astonished by the results. In the last couple of years we’ve seen a 170% increase in the number of private tutors signing up to find students via Bidvine.com, which makes it one of the fastest growing categories on the site.
“From our research and the report it’s obvious that the UK teaching sector is in a bit of a crisis, however I’m glad that Bidvine.com gives ex-teachers a way to still share their knowledge with more control of their workloads!”
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