Teachers are being pulled away from Kent by higher wages in places such as London.
Tara Mewawalla reports.
Tara Mewawalla reports.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If you're looking for a job, how high up on your list is teaching?
00:03It's a pressing question for schools as the industry loses thousands of teachers a year
00:07and is struggling to plug the gaps.
00:09Kent Teaching Solutions links teachers looking for jobs with prospective schools.
00:13Over the last four years, the demand has gone up and it's evidence that there is more
00:19demand for teachers than there used to be.
00:21It's always going to be the core subjects, English, maths and science,
00:25but there will always be a demand for maths.
00:27If we find a maths teacher, they'll get a job straight away.
00:31Pay, workload and work-life balance come up again and again.
00:35Maynaz Bormann is an English teacher at Cornwallis Academy who also coordinates
00:38training for teachers early on in their careers.
00:41The workload is a lot. There's no getting away from it.
00:43You know, when you're a teacher, there is a lot to do.
00:46Planning, marking, assessing, giving feedback and that's just the teaching.
00:51You know, our job isn't just about teaching our subjects.
00:53It's also we're forms tutors.
00:55Some of us have got additional responsibilities.
00:57And yes, it can be a very pressured environment.
01:01To investigate, I asked every school in Kent and Medway how many
01:04maths teacher positions they have and who currently fills them.
01:07Of the schools that replied in full,
01:09half had not been able to fill all their positions with a full-time specialist maths teacher.
01:13Over 90% of maths teacher positions across the schools
01:16altogether are filled by specialist full-time staff.
01:19But to fill the gaps, lessons are taught by supply teachers,
01:22trainee teachers and most commonly other subject teachers taking on maths lessons.
01:26During his campaign, Keir Starmer made it one of his key pledges to tackle
01:30subject teacher shortages at schools, including maths and science.
01:34People working in education tell me that schools have always struggled with recruitment
01:38and retention of teachers, but that the problem has been growing
01:41at a worrying rate over the last five years.
01:44So is the government doing enough to tackle it?
01:46The government has introduced VAT on private schools.
01:49We are committed to increasing the amount of permanent staff in schools.
01:52Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford,
01:54Tristan Osborne, highlights another challenge specifically for Kent.
01:58We're next to London and London pays teachers a premium.
02:02It's called the London rating.
02:04And so therefore they are hoovering up academics and teachers to teach in London schools.
02:10And so does there need to be a conversation specifically around schools close to London?
02:16He accepted that on its own, the VAT increase on private schools
02:19would not wholly improve the situation.
02:21But he stressed that there would be additional funding sources for schools,
02:24including the direct schools grant and funding for SEN.
02:28It's those in the classroom who will have to wait and see.
02:31Tara Mawawala for KMTV.