A report from the Education Select Committee has laid bare the stark situation facing secondary schools, with government recruitment targets being “severely missed”, record numbers of teachers quitting, and “worrying evidence” of teachers teaching outside of specialism and schools dropping subjects entirely.
The MPs’ inquiry highlights figures that are all too familiar to schools:
- One in 10 teachers quit in 2021/22 – the equivalent of 44,000 (and only 3,900 of this number left due to retirement).
- One in seven pupils in secondary schools are taught in classes with more than 30 pupils.
- Fewer than 60% of teachers are still in the profession after 10 years – with around a quarter leaving after just three years.
- Targets for recruitment onto initial teacher training courses are being consistently missed. They were missed across 10 secondary subjects in 2022/23, while in 2023/24 15 subjects missed with only 50% of the secondary recruitment target being met (13,102 teachers recruited against a target of 26,360).
- Notable under-recruitment in 2023/24 included music (27%), MFL (33%), geography (56%), and English (74%). The sciences are also struggling. STEM subjects only recruited 49% of their collective targets, including physics (17%), computing (36%), and maths (63%).
The MP’s report states: “There are now over 468,000 teachers which we accept as an improvement in absolute terms though not relative to pupil numbers. However, we recognise that this is still insufficient, particularly when we know recruitment targets continue to be missed, the number of teacher vacancies doubled between 2020 and 2022, and that secondary pupil numbers are expected to peak at around 3,230,000 this year. Progress on recruitment needs to be sustained and improved in order to manage and meet the needs of this demographic ‘bulge’.”
The report adds: “Given the extent of the teacher recruitment challenge, in particular severe shortages being faced in certain secondary school subjects the DfE should be using all available channels to recruit specialist secondary teachers.”
When it comes to subject provision, the report found widespread use of non-specialist teachers to cover specialist subjects in schools struggling with recruitment – with 62% of such schools reporting some maths lessons being taught by non-specialists, as well as physics lessons (55%) and languages (26%).
Schools are also dropping subjects – with 22% of schools reporting delivering zero hours of RE at year 11 despite the subject being compulsory to 18. The committee also cites evidence from the University of Exeter showing that schools without physics teachers are “less likely to offer triple science at GCSE”.
The report highlights issues including pupil behaviour, better pay and flexibility in other sectors, and teacher workload as reasons that too many teachers leave the profession.
Reducing workload
The report cites the DfE’s 2022 Working Lives of Teachers research, which revealed that 92% of teachers cite workload as a reason to quit the profession, while 57% blame pay.
MPs on the committee said that the DfE’s Workload Reduction Toolkit, which was published in 2019 to support schools, “has been underused and received poor feedback from those that did”. MPs call on the DfE to “simplify and revise” the toolkit “to ensure its relevance”.
MPs also say that the DfE must help schools to implement recommendations from the on-going work of the Workload Reduction Taskforce – which was set-up after the industrial action last year and which is expected to publish its final report soon.
Mental health overspill
Teachers are increasingly having to support pupils with mental health issues that aren’t being addressed due to “inadequate” capacity in social and mental health services, the report warns.
MPs cite research from charity Education Support which found that teachers are often stepping in to help children with cost-of-living pressures – buying meals and washing uniforms. The study found that 33% of teachers have helped to resolve a family conflict.
The report adds: “We recommend that the DfE leads a cross-government assessment of the scale of mental health difficulties among pupils and reviews the current provision of support available in schools and outside of them. The government should conclude this review and report its findings by the autumn. There then needs to be significant and well coordinated joint working across the government and additional funding to ensure CAMHS provision is adequate to meet the needs of school-age children.”
Bursaries and retention payments
The MPs support the government’s approach to teacher training bursaries, and they say these should continue to be targeted at subjects worst affected by shortages.
However, they warn that low or non-bursary subjects risk losing out and urge the DfE to consider introducing or increasing bursaries where necessary.
For 2024/25, the Department for Education has increased the number of post-graduate bursaries on offer to cover 12 subjects and previous research has found they are a cost-effective way to boost recruitment:
- £28,000 in chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics.
- £25,000 in biology, design and technology, geography and languages.
- £10,000 in art and design, English, music and RE.
When it comes to retention payments, MPs report that these are cheaper than having to train new teachers and reduce the probability of staff quitting by 23%. The two forms of retention payment used by the DfE are Early Career Payments of £2,000 to £5,000 for chemistry, languages, mathematics and physics teachers, and Levelling Up Premium Payments of between £1,500 and £3,000 for schools in acute need of teachers.
The report states: “The DfE should analyse the impact of the two schemes with a particular focus on their regional impact and consider rolling them out nationally.”
The MPs also ask ministers to “urgently rethink” funding cuts for Now Teach, a charity that helps people switch careers to become teachers. Indeed, the report recommends that a bursary be introduced specifically for career-switchers.
Pay increases
The MPs welcomed the introduction of a £30,000 starting salary as “a step towards improved competitiveness with other industries”. However, they warn that “the issue of pay competitiveness will need to be kept under review in future years”.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that between 2010/11 and 2022/23 most teachers will have seen real-terms salary cuts of 13% (Farquharson et al, 2023). This made last year’s 6.5% pay rise a significant step forward. However, given that much of the 6.5% will have been eaten up by high inflation, education unions want to see a further increase this year well above levels of inflation.
And it comes as the School Teacher Review Body (STRB) has reportedly handed its recommendations for September’s pay rise to the DfE. Unions have this week urged quick publication of this report to avoid delays caused in recent years.
Career development
Another cause of teacher turnover, according to MPs, is a lack of career development opportunities. They urge the DfE to reverse recent funding cuts for National Professional Qualifications. From September, NPQs will only be funded in the 50% of England’s schools that attract more Pupil Premium funding. The MPs also want to see the NPQ offer extended with “clearer career progression pathways for teachers who want to develop within their subject”.
Pupil behaviour
Around half of teachers in the DfE’s 2022 Working Lives of Teachers research cite behaviour and incident follow up as one of the key reasons for wanting to quit. The MPs, meanwhile, warn that disruptive behaviour has become more common, citing recent data showing record numbers of suspensions and exclusions. The report urges the DfE to expand its Behaviour Hubs programme, which sees lead schools with a good track record on behaviour supporting others.
Support staff pay
The MPs warns that due to the lack of additional funding for the most recent pay agreement for support staff and teaching assistants, schools are being forced to pay for this from existing budgets, leading to fewer support staff being hired with a potential impact on workload. The report wants the DfE to review the cumulative impact of not providing this extra funding. It adds: “Future wage increases must be factored into school budgets and the DfE must allocate sufficient funding to support pay growth.”
Commentary
Education Select Committee chairman Robin Walker MP said that unless we have a teaching workforce that feels “respected and rewarded” then “shortfalls in key subjects will deepen”.
He continued: “The government must use all the tools in the box to resolve this. We make a number of recommendations to provide new funding for bursaries so that some shortage subjects don't lose out to those where higher bursaries are already offered. Doing so would enable all subjects to compete against other industries for talented graduates.
“We also recommend the expansion of retention payments such as the Early Career Payment and Levelling up Premium, specifically to help the sector hold on to graduates of STEM subjects.”
He added: “For many current teachers, excessive workloads, rather than pay, was the biggest factor pushing them to leave. The DfE must reverse this trend by finding ways to communicate training and best practice to school leaders so that unnecessary work, particularly around data collection and planning, can be discarded for the benefit of staff wellbeing.”
- Education Select Committee: Teacher recruitment, training and retention, May 2024: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/44798/documents/222606/default/