Teaching ‘too big an ask’ as high numbers quit the job

THE number of teachers quitting the profession is “staggeringly high”, an expert has warned, adding that the job has become “too big an ask”.

Children are being taught by teachers who do not want to be there but are trapped by financial circumstances, according to Rebecca Allen, director of the Education Datalab think tank.

She warned teaching is now “incredibly difficult”, bogged down with paperwork and accountability tasks that are leaving people exhausted.

More needs to be done, in particular to help new teachers, and to stop them walking out the door, she said.

School workers are “putting in hours in excess of anything that people could imagine”, she said.

“It’s something that is essentially a performance job and I think as a profession they’re exhausted.” She added: “When you look at surveys of the profession that say what proportion of people are thinking about leaving, the numbers are staggeringly high.

“We know that when teachers leave, they often go into the labour market and end up earning less, at least on day one, as a consequence.”

Figures last October showed nearly a third of teachers who began work in England’s state schools in 2010 were not in the classroom five years later.

A Conservative Party spokesman said its manifesto included new policies to attract people into teaching and remain in the profession.

A Labour spokesman said the party would lift the public-sector pay cap, consult on teacher sabbaticals and reduce unnecessary monitoring.