Is The Classroom Too Much For New Teachers?

Many teachers quit the profession within a year of qualifying or finishing training.

17:55 02 April 2015

Nearly 4 out of 10 newly qualified teachers quit within a year of qualifying and an increasing number are leaving mid career.

 

Over the last six years, the number leaving has tripled, leaving the teaching profession with a supply shortage, with just 62% who qualified in 2011, still teaching a year later.

 

Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, says that the education system is being run on a "wing and a prayer," and that the teachers in post are burnt out and working in a very heavily monitored profession.

 

In 2010 Michael Gove said, in the ATL's conference, that teachers should be valued and have more teaching freedom.

 

Bousted highlighted the fact that teachers are leaving so soon after qualifying, some as soon as they have finished training.

 

She suggested that reasons for this could be due to the fact that these new teachers saw very early on what teaching has become and decided not to continue.  She also said they may have seen the current teachers who are overworked and exhausted.

 

Bousted claims that a lot of schools are left unsupported and the government relies on staff speaking out to highlight problems which otherwise will remain undetected.

 

Ofsted's demands may be resulting in Headteachers adding more workload to teachers.

 

Dr Bousted said, "We need our teachers and lecturers now, more than ever, if we are to face the challenge of change."