New statistics published by the DfE today have shown that one-in-three teachers leave their teaching job within their first five years and teachers are more likely to drop out after their first year within the classroom than any time since 1997; 15.3 per cent of those who qualified in 2017 began a brand new career in 2018. Although the retention rate of 84.7 per cent is high, it is slightly lower than last year, and even lower than the previous; what can be done to increase this number? If the education system stays on its current course, retention will continue to decrease.
Worrying statistics
Another worrying fact from the report; there are fewer secondary teachers in England now than at any point since 2010. Why is this? Huge workload? Worrying behaviour in turbulent times? One secondary school in Birmingham believes that their student behaviour is so bad that today marks the first day of teacher strikes to try and tackle violence towards others. When teachers decide to strike because of behaviour, how long does it take before something is done?
What is the government doing? They launched a new teacher recruitment and retention strategy earlier this year which is backed by £130 million extra funding; will this really make a difference? If we are not careful, in the future some schools may have to close if they cannot find the teachers to cover the classes, what will we do then?