Kentish Express Ashford & District
Fears over thousand unqualified teachers
More than 1,000 unqualified teachers are working in schools in Kent, official figures show.
Statistics from the Department for Education (DfE) reveal that there are 1,100 teachers without formal qualifications in classrooms across the county.
In Medway there are 180, with another 920 spread across the rest of Kent.
The figures come from the DfE’s latest workforce survey.
While the figure represents under 10% of the total school’s workforce, the number is on the up as academies and free schools are, under government powers, allowed to appoint those without formal teaching qualifications.
Unions also claim maintained schools are increasingly recruiting unqualified staff to fill vacancies and to cut costs.
John Walder, the Kent NUT representative, said that schools risked appointing teachers who they knew little about, often for key jobs.
He said: “You are talking about people who schools know very little about and what their skills are. They are unknown quantities. Heads are often having to fill vacancies at short notice. I have never met a parent who was happy about having an unqualified teacher in front of their children’s class.”
Phil Karnavas, the principal of Canterbury High School, said: “Head teachers should be allowed to appoint staff who they believe will best serve the needs of the students. In most cases qualified teachers are clearly the better option but in others, staff with unqualified teacher status may be better equipped to deliver some technical and vocational programmes.”
But he said it was wrong to use non-qualified staff as a way of filling gaps or saving money, he added.
“What should not happen is that non- qualified staff are used to plug staffing gaps or provide cheaper staffing because qualified teachers cannot be recruited or because budget pressures require savings.”
The previous government gave new powers to academies and free schools to hire unqualified teachers, saying it was a way of allowing head teachers to bring in professionals with “great knowledge and new skills”.
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