We need more teachers, and we need them now

Pubs converted into classrooms, recession-hit stores made into temporary schools, sports pitches moved to rooftop areas – the UK's growing school-age population is being shoehorned into every available space.

By the next decade, an extra 800,000 students will have entered England's secondaries, according to the Department for Education (DfE). But putting a roof over their heads is only half the struggle: England is also facing a teacher supply crisis.

"It's an issue that the government cannot duck," says professor John Howson, of the University of Oxford, a former government adviser on teacher supply. Although the population surge is yet to strike at secondary level, he warns that current teacher trainee numbers are already falling short of targets.

"If we've got a teacher shortage when the school population is 800,000 less than it will be at its peak, then you will not get a world-class education for every child when the population really starts to grow towards the end of this decade."

Figures from this year's recruitment round suggest there will be shortages in key areas including biology, maths, music, physics, religious education and geography.

The causes may include cuts to DfE marketing campaigns, a recovering economy providing more jobs for graduates and controversial reforms to teacher training programmes.

"The government has cut – because of its austerity programme – virtually all of the marketing in education," says Howson. "Despite the army making 1,000 soldiers redundant this year, it's still advertising on TV. We need 40,000 people to come and train as teachers, but the Dfe is doing no TV advertising this year.

"When there are more jobs around for graduates – and fewer jobs making people redundant – it's going to be more difficult."

The shakeup of teacher training routes has also disrupted recruitment, says professor Andy Goodwyn, head of Reading University's institute of education.

University courses equipping England's aspiring teachers have had the number of places for which they receive government funding cut dramatically, with the coalition diverting support to school-based training routes such as School Direct. Some institutions – such as Bath and the Open University – no longer offer PGCE courses, while others have cut courses.

"A lot of people out there who are considering teaching are just confused," says Goodwyn, who points to the variety of training paths and financial support packages on offer. "They're asking: what bursary will I get? Which route should I take? How will I be supported?"

Students who opt for School Direct apply directly to a school rather than a university to carry out their training. If they have sufficient experience in a school, then they may receive a salary, and they are often given a job at their training school if at the end of the course.

But in recent years, School Direct has struggled to recruit enough students.

A survey by Universities UK found that in 2013-14, universities were forced to turn away well-qualified candidates, while more than 3,000 School Direct places went unfilled. There are concerns, says Howson, that schools are setting the bar too high when interviewing prospective trainees.

"The question that has got to be put into the mind of School Direct schools is: are you recruiting people who you would hire as teachers, or are you recruiting people who are suitable to be at the start of a training course – some of whom will not make it?"

As universities have fewer places to offer, PGCE courses in popular areas such as English are more fiercely contested than in previous years and fill up fast, says Howson.

Kal Hodgson, assistant headteacher at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, which offers School Direct places, says his school looks for many of the same qualities in applicants as universities – most importantly, subject knowledge and communication skills.

"Even though their subject knowledge might not be completely robust at that stage, it is important. And we need to see evidence that the person has the capacity to teach.

"Some people are boring. Others are really interesting and they light up when talking to students."

By recruiting its own trainees, Hodgson hopes his school will be able to respond to local need more effectively. "We contacted schools in our alliance to see where they felt there would be the areas of need over the next couple of years, and we're recruiting in quite large numbers for maths and the science."

Altrincham isn't the only school requiring maths, physics and chemistry teachers. A recent DfE survey of teachers shows that a third (33.5%) of physics teachers in secondary schools do not have a degree in the subject – the same figure stands 22.4% in maths, 23.9% in chemistry and 20.1% in English.

The physics teacher problem is systemic and historical, says Charles Tracy, the Institute of Physics's head of education. He says it dates back to the 1980s, when teaching of the three sciences was clumped together.

"Schools and teacher trainers would then recruit 'scientists' – rather than physicists – to teach the subject. That went on for 20 years. Today, there are about 30,000 people teaching the sciences in secondaries in England, so you'd expect about 10,000 to be physics teachers. Actually it's more like 5,500."

Generous bursaries can help attract new teachers, says Tracy, "especially career changers who have a mortgage to pay and don't need another year of accruing fees without anything coming in".

But it's rarely salaries that attract teachers to the profession, he adds. "We need to show that if you're teaching, you're doing something really important: engaging with youngsters, who are endlessly interesting and surprising, and working in schools, which are great places to be."

This isn't just a message for physics experts, adds Howson. "We need to tell graduates and others that teaching is a good career, and if after five or 10 years in the classroom you want to do something else in education, you can. The government cannot allow a teacher supply crisis to build up now."

(Source: TheGuardian)