Maintained primary schools in England in 1998-9 spent 64% of their budgets on teaching staff and 15% on auxiliary and non-teaching staff. The equivalent figures for maintained secondary schools were 68% and 9%. They indicate that, despite increasing use of information technology, schooling remains centred on a teacher with a class of children (For breakdown by LEA see http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/cm010214/text/10214w10.htm#10214w10.html_sbhd3).
They also explain why the size and quality of the teaching force is a constant political issue.
Government statistics (November 2000) give the numbers, age, sex, pay and qualifications of teachers in service, together with the number of unfilled posts (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics/DB/VOL/v0220/). The numerical predominance of women was especially marked at the nursery and primary stages, where they constituted 88% of classroom teachers although only 58% of headteachers. Just under 55% of secondary teachers were women; at 28%, their “share” of headships was even lower. Ethnic identity is not recorded, but other surveys show a profession which, even in multi-ethnic parts of the country, is overwhelmingly white. All-graduate entry was established in the 1970s. Although the B.Ed degree was still, in 1999, the route into primary teaching for 62% new entrants, it qualified only 13% of those recruited to secondary schools. Overall, most newly qualified teachers have a first-degree followed by a one-year Postgraduate Certificate (PGCE). Small but rising numbers of graduates have been gaining Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) through entirely school-based training; in 1999, they numbered 430 out of 13,810 new recruits to the primary stage, and 400 of the 15,250 to secondary schools. An increasingly managerial approach to headship, and Government belief in the benefits of strong school leadership, are both reflected in the introduction of national qualifications for serving and aspiring headteachers which from April 2001 are the responsibility of the National College for School leadership (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2001_0091).
The age of new recruits contradicts the common image of teachers as being out of touch with the 'real world' because they typically move from school to university and then straight back to school. Of those completing the PGCE in 1999 in England, only 39% of men and 50% ofwomen were under the age of 25; 32% and 25% respectively were over the age of 30. Teachers have become subject to increasingly heavy monitoring and prescriptive government interventions in the methods as well as the content of what they teach. The creation of a General Teaching Council after many years of campaigning for it, may help to reverse that trend by giving a profession not helped by having several often competing unions a more representative voice and a greater capacity for self-regulation (DfEE press release, http://213.38.88.195/802566FC004AC1A9/Search/57CF77E09D5E5F8580256961003E0F92?OpenDocument).
Fluctuations in the birth-rate complicate teacher recruitment, producing temporary crises and improvements. For example, teacher-pupil ratios fell 'naturally' in the late 1970s and early 1980s while a smaller age group moved forward into secondary education. Annual changes in the balance between teacher and pupil numbers from 1993 to 1999 are shown in http://www.dfee.gov.uk/insidedfee/pdfs/annex. That the projections go no further than 2002 illustrate the uncertainties of teacher supply. A Statistical First Release shows (for England) the numbers of teachers in service and of teacher vacancies in January 2000 (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SFR/s0145/index.html).
As the commentary on class size indicates, variations in staffing levels are substantial. The most obvious is the difference in pupil-teacher ratios between primary and secondary schools. In 1998-9, the averages in England were 23.7 compared with 17.2, with effects apparent in class sizes and in the limited or non-existent 'non-teaching time' available to primary teachers for lesson preparation and assessing children's work. Differences between Local Authorities reflect variations in what central government authorises them to spend, and in the priority given to schools in their total budgets. They also reflect acute problems of teacher recruitment in parts of the country (see below). How far national pay rises are 'fully funded' by equivalent increases in central government grants is contentious (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/cm010720/text/10720w77.htm#10720w77.html_sbhd2).
Teacher recruitment is a sensitive indicators of the state of the economy. When graduate unemployment is low, teaching's relatively low pay and status are deterrents to recruitment which may be alleviated when competition for entry to more lucrative occupations is especially fierce. Starting salaries which compare reasonably well with many professions (although not with the City and associated occupations) do not maintain their comparability. Relative improvement in headteacher salaries, especially in large secondary schools, has not benefited the majority of teachers who reach a salary plateau in their 30s, a problem addressed in a February 2001 report from the School Teachers Review Body on teachers' pay (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo010202/text/10202w01.html_sbhd7).
Arguments continue about whether teacher recruitment is in crisis or only in serious difficulty. Reasons for concern are evident in Government statistics, which show (for example) the overall extent of shortages over a ten-year period, and the distribution of vacant posts by Local Authority and across the main secondary curriculum subjects (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo010130/text/10130w02.htm#10130w02.html_sbhd3); and annual recruitment figures 1992-2001, numbers of Government-funded classroom assistants 1999-2000, and the number of new teachers needed 2001-2003 to meet national targets (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo001214/text/01214w10.htm#01214w10.html_sbhd0)
Entry to initial teacher training fell sharply in the late 1990s. In primary education, this was defended as a planned response to a smaller age-group. At the secondary stage, however, numbers in 1999 were 17% below the government's overall target of 18,470, and far short of subject targets in mathematics (by 23%), foreign languages (35%), and technology (40%). These sources also show how many qualified teachers did not enter the profession. For example, of those who completed their training in 1998, just under a third of men and 28% women were not employed in any school in the following March. Although many of these may have simply postponed their entry to teaching, their numbers illustrate the wider problem of teacher retention.
Wastage rates in 1998, calculated as the proportion of full-time teachers at the end of a school year who are not in full-time service in any school the following March, was around 9% in most areas of the country but higher in the south-east (10.5%), outer London (11%) and especially inner London (12.9%). Nationally the 'outflow' of teachers leaving the profession in 1997-8 significantly exceeded the 'inflow' of new entrants in every region of England except eastern England, and in Wales. If repeated, as it has been in recent years, it produces a profession which is not renewing itself. It will certainly lose within the next ten years a high proportion of the current teaching force; in March 1999, 48% of primary teachers and 58% of secondary teachers were aged over forty. This explains official alarm both at falling applications to training courses in the 1990s and at the substantial proportions of newly-qualified teachers who left teaching within a few years.
The usual indicator of staff shortages, the number of unfilled vacancies, underestimates their seriousness if it fails to take into account the appropriateness of teachers' subject qualifications and experience to the posts they occupy. In general, vacancy rates in September 2000 were substantially higher than they had been in 1995 in Wales, and in every region of England except the north-east. They were especially severe in mathematics, where they amounted to one in five of all unfilled posts in those countries. The especially severe problems experienced in London are regularly reported (for example, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/vo010109/text/10109w11.htm#10109w11.html_sbhd0. In these general conditions of shortage, some types of school are better placed to secure scarce teachers because they have freedom to pay above normal salary levels and have the money to do so.
Although both Ministers and the Teaching Training Agency have tended to deny a crisis in supply, recent government measures indicate their concern. Ongoing arguments between government and teacher unions about performance-related pay have not prevented the introduction of merit awards of £2,000 for teachers judged to be above a performance threshold; 197,000 teachers applied for them, almost all successfully (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2000_0279).
Efforts to encourage early-retired teachers to return to the classroom have been complemented by fast-track recruitment for mature entrants with experience in other relevant occupations (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo001122/text/01122w16.htm#01122w16.html_sbhd7). In December 2000 the Government announced a £250 million scheme to assist new teachers in areas where house prices are an additional deterrent to recruitment (notably London and the south-east) to buy their first homes. Most significantly, it introduced salaries of £150 a week for trainee teachers which brought an immediate and substantial increase in applications to training courses (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2000_0340). It remains to be seen whether this increase will be sustained. More immediately, shortages have led to increasing use of supply teachers, many provided by private agencies. They have also prompted the Government to provide earmarked funding for more classroom assistants, and to encourage investigation of how they can be used most effectively, which should help to identify critical teaching skills and to differentiate between classroom tasks which do and do not require teachers' distinctive professional knowledge and expertise.
May 2001
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