Today I have one burning question: Why is it so difficult for teachers to remain in the profession? The numbers jumping ship are alarming. Within five years of qualification, more than 31% have left teaching. Within 10 years that figure rises to more than 40% (DfE, 2022).
No education system can succeed without a good supply of teachers. Successive governments, presented with strong evidence that excessive and intensive workload is the overwhelming reason for teacher flight, have professed teachers should be highly valued but have done little to realise that ambition.
Instead, research, such as the British Skills and Employment Survey, reveals that teachers’ work intensity has soared – so that by 2017, 90% of teachers reported that their job requires them to “work very hard” compared to 52% in other equivalent professions. The researchers conclude that “no other large occupation has shown anything like this degree of work intensification” (Green, 2021).
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