Commenting on the NFER's Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report, which makes the case that the recruitment and retention crisis in teaching "shows no signs of abating", Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"This report by the NFER highlights beyond a shadow of a doubt that the teacher recruitment and retention crisis cannot be left unaddressed. This is clear to everyone except the Government, whose wilful neglect of the causes of this problem are now well and truly coming home to roost.
"Underpaid, overworked and under-supported teachers in under-resourced schools are facing unprecedented levels of challenge and many are voting with their feet and either leaving the profession or choosing not to enter it.
"This exodus from the profession will not be solved without fully funded above inflation pay increases to reverse the real term pay cuts since 2010. Attacks on teacher and school leader pay since 2010, including huge real terms cuts against inflation, have severely damaged the competitiveness of pay as well as the living standards of teachers and school leaders. Recruitment targets are set to be missed yet again by wide margins, exacerbating the teacher shortages that already exist across the school system.
"Unless we improve teachers’ work-life balance we won’t make the profession an appealing one to enter and stay in. And we won’t do that unless we tackle teachers’ sky-high workload.
"The lack of school funding adds further salt to the wound with schools and colleges having to do more and more with less and less. External support services have also been cut back to the bare bone with mental health support for families and children either non-existent or run down to such woefully inadequate levels that children wait for months if not longer to get any support.
"Teaching is one of the best professions in the world but unless this and any future Government addresses teacher pay, workload and school funding we shall only see the teacher recruitment and retention crisis deepen. Our children, young people and society deserve so much better.”