Why is there a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching?

There are serious teacher recruitment and retention issues in school in England - highlighted by ongoing strike action - but why has the problem got worse?

Schools in England have faced a teacher supply issue for some time, with research indicating that the overall number of teachers has been failing to keep pace with pupil numbers since 2011. The issue is most severe in secondary schools.

While findings from the 2022/23 Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Census suggest that the Postgraduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) primary target was met in five of the last seven years, the secondary target has not been met since 2012/13.1 Moreover, secondary school pupil numbers are projected to rise by 7% by the year 2026, meaning that pressures are likely to continue.2

Though it is true that the these pressures were temporarily eased during the pandemic, when there was an unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT, research suggests that 'significant' teacher supply challenges are 're-emerging'.3 For instance, there were 28,991 total new ITT entrants in 2022/23, down 20% from the previous year. Similarly, down from 131% in 2021/22, in 2022/23, 93% of the PGITT target was achieved in primary and just 59% of the target was achieved in secondary subjects, compared to 79% in the previous year.4

Issues surrounding teacher retention are also re-emerging, with the number of primary teachers leaving the profession ostensibly rising back to pre-pandemic levels, and while secondary leaving rates have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, they appear to be increasing as well.5

Although retention rates have improved dramatically for early-career teachers in recent years, there has been less improvement for mid-career teachers, and virtually none for experienced teachers.

• 88% teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification
• 77% teachers who qualified three years ago are still teaching
• 69% teachers who qualified five years ago are still teaching
• 60% teachers who qualified ten years ago are still teaching

This paints a worrying picture - considering the time that it takes to build expertise in the field, a young teacher is not a like-for-like replacement for a teacher with 20 years' experience.6 With this in mind, it is imperative that policymakers do what is necessary to curtail this trend, as teacher quality is the single most important school variable influencing student achievement.

How do schools deal with staff shortages?

Naturally, school leaders work hard to mitigate teacher shortages but some of the strategies employed to do so are likely to have detrimental implications for pupils' education and learning. In practice, staff shortages rarely mean classrooms without teachers in them. For instance, when recruitment is difficult schools are more likely to hire teachers with less experience than is ideal, which is a cause for concern, as recruiting inexperienced teachers can negatively impact teaching quality.7

More worryingly, it is not uncommon for secondary schools to deploy non-specialist teachers to teach subjects that are hard to recruit for. Over a long period of time, there have been a number of subjects that have seen persistent recruitment and retention problems - these include maths and science subjects, as well as subjects like design and technology and modern foreign languages.8

Recent research from the National Foundation for Education Research found that, 'many schools reported non-specialists teaching maths (45% reporting at least 'some' lessons) and physics (39%) and modern foreign languages (MFL) (17%)'.9

With graduates in science, technology and maths subjects generally being able to command comparatively high salaries in the private sector, it is often difficult to attract these graduates to a job in teaching. While it is unlikely that there is a single cause or solution to the problem of recruiting and retaining teachers, EPI research suggests that pay levels are likely to be central - noting that maths and science subjects, where graduates can command higher salaries outside of teaching, are where the most acute shortages exist. On the other hand, shortages are not so acute in subjects such as arts, history and English where outside salaries are lower.10

Underpaid and overworked?

In 2019, Prospects surveyed its users to get an idea of what puts graduates off from a career in teaching, as well as what might actually encourage those who are sceptical to consider a career in teaching. When asked what, if anything, could attract them to a career in teaching, a third suggested that they would be more likely to pursue a job in teaching if they were better paid. Recent governments have been proactive in this regard, not only raising starting salaries – with aims of raising them even more in 2023 - but other incentives include bursaries and scholarships for key subjects (i.e. chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics).11

In fact, recent changes to teacher pay, which saw most teachers receive a 5% pay increase from September 2022 (inexperienced teachers received higher increases up to 9%), represent some of the 'biggest cash-terms increases' in teacher salary for over 15 years.12 Nevertheless, with inflation currently at 10.5%, these increases will still represent real-terms salary cuts. This follows on from real-terms salary cuts dating back to 2010, and consequently, the median rate of teacher pay in 2020/21 remained about 7 to 9% below the 2010/11 rate in real terms. Meanwhile, median earnings of similar professionals are only 1% lower, meaning teacher pay has 'lost competitiveness', which could have a negative impact on recruitment and retention.13

Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2023

While teacher pay is central to existing teacher supply issues, another key factor is workload. Following a survey targeted at former teachers from January to March 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned in-depth qualitative research into why teachers leave the profession and what would encourage them to remain in teaching. They found that workload was the most important factor influencing teachers' decisions to leave the profession and most suggested solutions to addressing retention were linked to workload in some way.14

TALIS, a five-yearly international, large-scale OECD survey of teachers, school leaders and the learning environment in schools found that:

• Full-time lower secondary teachers in England reported working, on average, 49.3 hours a week. This was above the OECD average of 41 hours a week. The equivalent figure in England in TALIS 2013 was 48.2 hours a week.
• Full-time primary teachers in England reported working 52.1 hours a week. This was more than in any other participating country except Japan.
• 53% of primary teachers and 57% of lower-secondary school teachers felt that their workload was unmanageable.

Finally, school working environment is particularly important. Most teachers do not become teachers because they are looking for a high salary. In fact, in our 2019 survey we found that 75% of respondents who said that they are interested in a career in teaching said the prospect of helping to nurture kids' potential is what attracts them to teaching more than anything else, a further 15% said that it is rewarding work.

Research from the Durham Evidence Centre for Education, Durham University, suggests that teachers are willing to work long hours, and even for lower pay, if they have a supportive working environment. They typically aren't driven out of the profession by low pay, but are instead driven away by the perceived lack of leadership support. Additionally, they assert that 'if the working conditions are favourable, monetary inducements are not necessary'.15

How has the government attempted to address the issue?

From bursaries and early careers payments to government funded vacancy websites for teachers, governments have been working on solutions to the problems surrounding teacher recruitment and retention over the years. In particular, the workload reduction toolkit is a series of online resources, including advice, tools and case studies, for school leaders to help review and reduce workload in their schools.

Furthermore, following the 2015 commitment to upskill 15,000 existing teachers who do not specialise in maths and physics, in 2015/16 subject specialism training was launched. This training aimed to build the capacity of non-specialists who are either currently teaching maths or physics, or who may be able to do so - teacher subject specialism training is now additionally available for modern foreign languages and core maths.

With the recruitment of teachers from overseas becoming more difficult in recent years, the government aims to roll out a new qualification, international qualified teacher status (iQTS), from 2023. The new qualification would be recognised as equivalent to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), able to be offered to trainees all over the world by accredited English ITT providers.

Read more about why students and graduates are put off a career in teaching and what might tempt them to change their minds.

Notes:

1. Initial Teacher Training Census, GOV.UK, 2023.
2. Teacher shortages in England: Analysis and pay options, Education Policy Institute, 2020.
3. Teacher targets for popular subjects set to be missed as recruitment challenges ‘re-emerge’, Schools Week, 2023.
4. Initial Teacher Training Census, GOV.UK, 2023.
5. Teacher targets for popular subjects set to be missed as recruitment challenges ‘re-emerge’, Schools Week, 2023.
6. Teacher recruitment and retention in England, House of Commons, 2022.
7. What do teacher shortages look like, and what do they mean for pupils’ learning?, National Foundation for Educational Research, 2022.
8. What has happened to teacher pay in England?, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2023.
9. What do teacher shortages look like, and what do they mean for pupils’ learning?, National Foundation for Educational Research, 2022.
10. Teacher shortages in England: Analysis and pay options, Education Policy Institute, 2020.
11. Although research suggests that financial incentives are effective in attracting teachers, some question if these kinds of external motivations attract the best teachers
12. What has happened to teacher pay in England?, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2023.
13. Teacher targets for popular subjects set to be missed as recruitment challenges ‘re-emerge’, Schools Week, 2023.
14. Teacher recruitment and retention in England, House of Commons, 2022.
15. Where have we gone wrong in our battle against teacher shortages?, Beng Huat See, 2022.

Written by

Micha-Shannon Smith

Assistant information analyst

Prospects