Classroom Crisis: Why Britain’s Schools Can’t Find Enough Teachers

National World - LocalTV

Schools face record-high teacher vacancies as unions warn of a deepening recruitment crisis—can government plans tackle workload pressures, pay issues, and restore stability to Britain’s classrooms?

Transcript

00:00When I was growing up, a very long time ago, teaching was seen to be a very revered profession.

00:06I suspect now that you ask the average teacher, do you feel valued?

00:12And the answer is probably not.

00:14It's a profession where, of course, you're under a lot of pressure, and that was always

00:18the case.

00:19But of course, you've got to hit targets in terms of getting these young people through,

00:24which of course is a good thing.

00:25You're under pressure from the national curriculum to teach to that.

00:29You're also scrutinized in many different ways, and of course, we hear lots of issues

00:34of off-step inspections and the stress that puts on teachers, and all of this in a profession

00:40where you start off in your mid-20s, well, mid-20s in terms of age, or early 20s perhaps

00:46if you come straight from university at 21, but mid-£20,000.

00:52So the salary is not exactly significant.

00:54I know that there are lots of incentives, and indeed, in terms of the problem of teaching,

00:59it's attracting them into the sciences, because what happens, understandably, is people who

01:04come out with numerical qualifications, they are being seduced to go into occupations where

01:10the starting salary is a lot higher without all of the pressure.

01:15But there is an argument, and indeed, I've heard this, I used to be a governor, and you

01:19get this that all teachers, they only work between nine and a half feet.

01:23Well, that's not the case.

01:24There is no doubt that there is an issue of behaviour in certain schools, and that is

01:30indeed part of the disincentive of wanting to become a teacher, because you are always

01:34treading this very thin line between trying to keep discipline, and perhaps going a little

01:40too hard on certain pupils, but what can you do if you've got unruly classes, and indeed,

01:47we've probably all been in, every viewer will have remembered a teacher who lost control.

01:51That's pretty dreadful.

01:52But of course, the fact is, though, if a child makes a sort of complaint, that can be career-ending,

01:57and indeed, I've heard of situations where sort of teachers have been sort of so traumatised

02:01by it, they have left the profession.

02:03So there's a big issue here.

02:05What we've got to also remember is that sort of, you know, we've got kids who are sort

02:07of coming into sort of the system, maybe there's an issue with sort of parenting, that's a

02:12sort of wider societal thing, and indeed, also, you talk to teachers of sort of primary

02:16school children who've come in post-lockdown, when you're getting sort of four and five

02:21year olds coming to school who, you know, have no sort of social skills and can't even

02:26go to the toilet on their own, indeed, some of them are wearing nappies, there is a big

02:29problem.

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