Schools ‘spending thousands on agencies to recruit teachers’
…and I bet a fair chunk of the schools featured here are rural! This story tells us:
Schools are spending thousands of pounds on recruitment agencies because of an ongoing “recruitment crisis”, with schools even paying agencies more than £10,000 to hire teachers, a new survey shows.
Figures by the NAHT union also showed that six per cent of schools paid more than £7,000 including two schools that paid more than £10,000.
This comes amid concerns that it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire teachers because a growing economy means recent graduates have more career options and concerns that growing workload is putting people off teaching.
However, the Department for Education (DfE) said the number and quality of teachers in UK classrooms was at “an all-time high”.
The new survey showed almost four in five UK schools find it difficult to fill positions is proof of an ongoing “recruitment crisis”.
According to the annual recruitment survey, 79 per cent of school leaders who advertised vacancies had a problem recruiting. Over 2,100 leaders took part.
The main reason – cited in just over half the cases – was an overall shortage of applicants. The findings will be presented to the Education Select Committee’s session on the supply of teachers today.
NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby said: “The Education Committee today asks whether there is a crisis in the recruitment of teachers and school leaders; our evidence clearly shows that there is.”