Guardian survey paints negative picture of teacher recruitment crisis

Seven in 10 teachers believe that the current recruitment crisis in the teaching profession is having a negative impact on pupils, according to a new survey from The Guardian.

The Guardian surveyed more than 4,000 teachers that looked to evaluate the extent of the recruitment issues facing the education sector and its effects on schools.

Of those respondents responsible for recruiting, almost eight in 10 said they had struggled to attract new staff, with 93 per cent citing a shortage of good candidates as the biggest barrier to recruitment.

In addition to the issue of recruiting new staff, 43 per cent of respondents also said that they were planning to leave the profession within the next five years.

A big reason for this seems to be increased pressure and workload, with 98 per cent saying that they are under increasing pressure and 82 per cent describing their workload and ‘unmanageable’.

Over 75 per cent of respondents said they are working between 49 and 65 hours a week, and only 12 per cent said they felt they had a good work-life balance.

The figures paint a negative picture of the current recruitment issues that the education sector is facing and suggest these issues could continue, given the number of teachers considering leaving the profession.

In response to The Guardian’s findings, Duncan Baldwin, from the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “There has been an unprecedented scale of reform that impacts on the classroom teacher. The curriculum has been changed in its entirety in primary schools, and secondary schools are coping with hurried changes to GCSE and A-levels and having to redo their curriculums and subject options as well.

“Add to this the new high-stakes accountability, in particular the regime of Ofsted inspection, and the suppression of teacher pay and budget cuts and it’s no wonder so many teachers are deciding it is no longer for them.”