UK study reveals shortage of senior staff at schools

A survey by a teachers’ union in Britain has highlighted a growing concern regarding a lack of senior staff at UK schools.

The National Association of Head Teachers' (NAHT) research revealed 62% of schools are struggling to recruit teachers of a higher status, with 14% unable to find deputy heads and 20% unable to recruit for assistant head positions.

The information also highlights concerns about the quality of newly qualified teachers who are being used in place of unreachable experienced staff members, with a third of participants stating newly qualified teachers “were not well prepared to start working in a school.”

The collected data suggests 58% of schools were worried about the lack of subject knowledge shown by newly qualified teachers while 56% complained of their poor understanding of child development.

Now, Adam Hurst, a social analyst in London says: “Britain places much more emphasis and importance and values on things such as war than on educating its own children. The evidence of this is the amount of time and money and resources that are afforded to war, as opposed to amount of resources that are afforded to education.”

“So, the primary source of this is of course, government. But I think it extends beyond that, it extends the way the monarch of the country, the Queen in this case, values education. It does not really matter to the British establishment whether or not people are educated. There is no benefit really, they do not see it as benefit.”

This comes following increasing fears by unions and inspection watchdog, OFSTED on the dangerous direction of schools and children's education.  The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has also recently carried out an analysis which showed newly qualified teachers are now quitting the profession just a year after finishing their training.

Leader of the NAHT Edge section, Louis Coiffait, said: “It’s time to be frank, we’re facing a recruitment crisis at all stages of the education system.

“Until we address it at each of those stages, there’s no chance that we’ll have the quantity or quality of head teachers we need in the future. That’s why we set up NAHT Edge – to give the next generation of school leaders the support they need to overcome the challenges they’ll face in their careers.

“Nothing is more important than ensuring children have access to the best possible standards of teaching. But any improvements we’ve seen in education will stutter and stall if there’s no investment in teacher development and career progression.

“Promising professionals will leave and would-be leaders will choose not to take on leadership roles. That can’t be allowed to happen.”

SU/HRK/GHN

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