Calibre of teachers ‘is getting worse’

SCHOOLS are having to take on lower-calibre staff because of a recruitment crisis, research reveals.

Experts fear a fall in the quality of teachers applying for jobs will have an adverse effect on pupils.

The annual Times Educational Supplement Recruitment Index shows that while schools have had more success filling empty roles than in any year since 2012, there has been a fall in the capability of applicants.

Almost three-quarters of heads (72 per cent) say there has been a deterioration in the quality of staff applying for jobs over the past year.

Since 2012, school leaders have been increasingly dissatisfied with the calibre of candidates.

This year, 71 per cent of the 1,500 secondary school head teachers questioned by the TES said they were happy with the quality of applicants, compared with 84 per cent in 2012.

The survey also found more than half of heads are cutting ‘non-core’ subjects from their schools’ curriculum, and two-thirds said class sizes had increased this year.

Ministers have repeatedly said the number of teachers in schools is at an ‘all-time high’ and been reluctant to acknowledge a supply crisis.

But Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said government figures are ‘disguising the reality’.

This is because schools have to fill roles with ‘supply staff or people who were below the usual standard’.

The drop in quality of applicants will have a knock-on effect on schools’ performance, he added.

The Department for Education said: ‘More than 97 per cent of teachers have a degree or higher – up from just over 94 per cent in 2010 – and the number of teacher trainees with a first has almost doubled.’