Over 400,000 teachers not in teaching

The Conservatives have uncovered new figures showing that over 404,600 qualified teachers under the age of 60 are not teaching. 25,000 people who qualified as teachers since 2000 left full time teaching in the state sector without even entering the classroom.

The news comes after a survey revealed that over a third of UK teachers are actively seeking work abroad, citing working conditions as one of the major factors in their decision. Another survey found that two thirds of teachers have considered leaving the profession because of discipline problems, and evidence suggests that behaviour is increasingly becoming a greater problem. More than half of primary school teachers in a recent ATL survey said behaviour had got worse over the last five years.

Shadow Children’s Secretary, Michael Gove said:

“This is a tragic waste of talent that is costing the taxpayers millions of pounds every year. We are training thousands of new teachers every year only for many of them to leave within a few years of becoming qualified. But at the same time, there are literally hundreds of thousands who are qualified but have turned their backs on the profession.

“The Government must take responsibility for driving so many experienced professionals out of the classroom by tying their hands in red tape and watering down their powers to keep order. We need to strip away the unnecessary bureaucracy and allow teachers to crack down on bad behaviour so they can deal with discipline problems before they spiral out of control. That’s why we’ve outlined plans to give heads the final say over exclusions so that they do not have to put up with seriously disruptive or violent pupils.”

“These measures, coupled with raising the status of teaching by making the entry requirements more rigorous and allowing good teachers to get paid more, could start to attract highly skilled teachers back to the classroom where they can make a difference to children’s lives.”

A parliamentary question asked by Michael Gove revealed that:

Over 400,000 teachers are not in teaching. As of March 2008, ‘there were 404,600 teachers under the age of 60 with qualified teacher status in England or Wales who were not recorded in service.’

(Hansard, 5 October 2009, Col. 2314WA)


25,000 new teachers who have never taught

Since 2000, 25,100 newly qualified teachers have left the profession without ever entering the classroom.

Teachers under pressure

· Over a third of teachers are considering going abroad. A new survey by education recruitment firm Eteach has found that more than a third (34.6 per cent) of the UK's teachers are actively looking for work abroad. A similar proportion (31.8 per cent) are open to the idea of working overseas. Of the teachers who were considering a move abroad, almost a third had between six and ten years experience. Of those looking abroad, one of the biggest reasons given was better working conditions

(Eteach Press Release, 9 December 2008).

· Discipline problems driving teachers away. Two thirds of teachers have considered leaving the profession because of aggressive pupils, verbal abuse and threats of violence (ATL Press Release, 17 March 2008). Another survey, also by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, found that children are becoming more aggressive at a younger age. More than half of primary school teachers said behaviour had got worse over the last five years. The same poll reported three quarters of teachers saying their jobs are made more difficult by disruptive pupils and almost two thirds saying they had witnessed physical aggression from pupils (ATL Press Release, 30 November 2009).

2nd report

· Teaching is the most ‘highly stressed’ profession. A report by the Health and Safety Executive concluded that teaching is the most stressful occupation in the UK: 41.5 per cent of teachers reported themselves ‘highly stressed’ (Health and Safety Executive, The Scale of Occupational Stress: further analysis of the impact of demographic factors and type of job, 2000).

Bureaucracy strangling schools

· Drowning schools in guidance. The Department of Children, Schools and Families sends almost 4,000 pages of emailed guidance to schools each year. Between April 2008 and April 2009, the Department’s fortnightly guidance notes contained a total of 3,982 pages of documents. If all 3,982 pages were printed, the stack of papers would be 16 inches thick. The guidance contained 1,269,000 words - 1 and a half times as many as the King James Bible, or more than all the Harry Potter Books combined (Conservative Party Press Release, 16 August 2009).

· Statutory stranglehold. There are now 37 different statutory policies that schools in England and Wales have to follow. These include detailed policies on collective worship, community cohesion and ‘target setting’ (DCSF, The Guide to the Law for School Governors, April 2009).

Over £300m a year to train new teachers

The TDA’s Executive Directorate for Training spends over £300m a year on training new teachers - £253m on funding initial teacher training providers and £87m on funding employer-based routes (TDA, Annual Report and Accounts, 2009, p.61). Funding a one-year full-time initial teacher training course costs the TDA about £6,000 (TDA, Mainstream Initial Teacher Training Funding Manual, 2009, p.19-20).