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New teachers in England will be paid more cash to stay in their profession.
The UK government plans to offer novice teachers £5,000 upon reaching their third and fifth year of teaching to encourage them to stay in their jobs. The initiative is part of the Department for Education’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, which aims to attract and retain teachers in the teaching profession.
Apart from the cash incentives, the new strategy will also include two years of funded teacher training and support, flexible working conditions, and an easier teacher application process. These measures seek to address the lack of teachers in the country.
There is a shortage of teachers in England because too many teachers leave the profession and not enough new teachers are recruited to replace them. Teachers in physics, chemistry, and languages are particularly scarce.
One of the reasons why teachers leave the profession is that the pay is considerably lower than those of other professionals. In addition, teachers tend to be overworked. On top of actual teaching, teachers spend a lot of time on other tasks such as grading students’ outputs and updating records. Lastly, teachers struggle with work-life balance, particularly when they begin planning to have families of their own.
When the government unveiled plans to address teacher shortage, those from the education sector expressed mixed reactions. Association of School and College Leaders General Secretary Geoff Barton praised the initiative. He commented that the teaching industry should make more effort in making teaching more attractive.
However, Angela Rayner of the Labour Party criticized the plan. She pointed out that the initiative can no longer undo the damage done by years of salary and budget cuts, which caused the teacher shortage in the first place.