I became a teacher under duress, and that’s not an exaggeration. Teaching wasn’t a “calling” for me, nursed since youth, but a path based on a pragmatic assessment of how, with an English degree, I could join a profession that held the promise of a career. And yet it felt like another type of failure because our collective consciousness holds that “Those who can’t do, teach.” And what’s more pathetic than returning to school?
Teaching isn’t associated with fun. And yet both the preparation of lessons and their delivery are indeed that. Challenging, yes, but not many people can say their work allows them to explore social justice issues through literature and to do so with a demographic that tends to be less inclined to jaded cynicism than most. My work is creative and rewarding because there’s nothing quite like seeing your students master a skill, grow in confidence and surprise you with their insights.
This week it was reported that a shortfall of trainee teachers is reaching crisis levels, with a particular dearth in London and the home counties, and a significant drop over the last decade in the number of women applicants. A number of factors were used to explain this, including the gap between the growth in private sector and public sector salaries.
That this crisis exists isn’t surprising. My Yoda-like at-oneness with the profession has been somewhat boosted since I began working part time, and the reality is that, for teachers, the emotional energy necessary to be good at the job does take its toll. But shrugging off a shortfall that reaches as much as 85% in the numbers training to teach business studies and social sciences is desperate folly. Here, then, are some suggestions for how the Department for Education could reverse the crisis.
1. Reduce teachers’ unsustainable workload
In theory, teachers have great working hours – we’re supposed to start at 8am and finish at around 3pm; and then there are all the holidays. In practice, we’re nowhere near such a cushy work-life balance. On average, classroom teachers report working 55-60 hours a week. Reducing the workload could be achieved by recognising that the endless gathering, analysis and reporting of data can be effective only if we are given smaller classes and time to work collaboratively with colleagues both within and outside school.
2. Treat the profession with respect
Successive governments have painted our education system as failing and have in large part blamed teachers for this. Constant curriculum changes ignore advice from teachers and the unions that represent us, helping only to create the feeling that this is a low-status profession. It leaves us disempowered and feeds into the perception that this is a profession best avoided or escaped.
3. Keep pay rises in line with the private sector
While wages and salaries in the private sector are predicted to increase by 4% a year, those in the public sector have been capped at 1% growth. This comes at a time when any worker would need to earn £140,000 a year to afford an averagely priced flat in the capital. Only a very few headteachers will ever find themselves near such a wage in the teaching profession, and the London starting salary is £27,000 a year. No wonder, then, that the city has the biggest shortfall in teacher recruitment.
In the rest of the UK, teachers will begin by earning £22,000, at a time when the average first-time buyer needs to earn £41,000 to get on the property ladder. This is after paying £9,000 in tuition fees for teacher training – along with however much is needed in loans to sustain oneself – all for the pleasure of an unmanageable workload and public derision. Not a strong sales pitch for the profession. Those high-achieving graduates the government is desperate to woo into teaching have sense enough to see it as an unpromising proposition. All of which is to say that we need salaries that keep pace with rises in private sector pay. Additionally, in London, the south-east and other especially expensive areas, affordable housing ought to be what it says on the tin rather than the absurdity it has become.
4. Tackle the perceived ceiling to success
At the moment a teacher’s career path ends in a headship. Yet many recognise that this is a road incompatible with normal life, particularly when you have a family. This is perhaps one of the reasons why, in the period 2005-2015, there was such a drop in women applying for teaching training. We need a career structure that, as the government’s own analysis of teacher retention and recruitment accepts, “allows all teachers to pursue their own particular interests and strengths, whether in pedagogy, leadership or an area of specialism such as behaviour management or curriculum development”.
5. Change and challenge damaging perceptions of teenagers
When speaking to teacher friends about tackling the crisis in recruitment, we agreed that challenging the dominant narrative about young people was essential. They are not inherently terrifying, however they might be depicted and discussed. Ask any group of young women secondary school teachers and all will have the same story about mentioning their profession to a new acquaintance – after the oohs at the fact we work as teachers, there is generally an assumption that we teach in primary schools. The fact that teenagers in our society are considered raucous and threatening necessarily makes secondary school teaching an unattractive profession. But the reality is that the kids are all right. In fact, they’re quite funny, smart and compassionate.