Schools near bottom of class for staff shortages

SCHOOLS in the UK are more hindered by staff shortages than many of their international counterparts, a major report has found.

The landmark Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), which covers 72 countries and economies, found a “relatively large share” of headteachers reported that their school was affected by staff shortages.

According to the study, pub- lished by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 43 per cent of principals in the UK said a recruitment and retention issue affected their school, compared with the 30 per cent average across OECD countries.

The findings, published every three years, chime with repeated concerns from unions over an apparent lack of staff in UK schools – despite teacher numbers rising and a government commitment to spend more than £1.3 billion to address the shortages within this parliament.

Presenting the report, OECD secretary general Angel Gurria said: “I come from Mexico - it used to be that every family would aspire to have a son that would become a teacher. The teacher had great standing in the community. “That, today, has been lost. “In Finland, the recruitment process for the teachers is very strict, the qualifications are very high, for one opening there will be 100 or 150 with a masters degree.

“And the pay is absolutely comparable to any other profession, as we believe it should be because you are having a much more delicate product to deal with than a factory or a machine - it’s the future of our children.

“That (model) is not replicated as often as it should be.”