44% of teachers in England plan to resign within five years Teaching

A survey has found that almost half of teachers in England are planning to resign in the next five years.

Ahead of the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference in Bournemouth this week, NEU revealed on Monday that 44% of teachers plan to leave the profession by 2027.

In a survey of 1,788 teachers, one-fifth (22%) said they would leave in two years. Teachers said heavy work pressure was a significant reason for their decision to leave. More than half (52%) of respondents said their workload was “uncontrolled” or “uncontrollable most of the time”, rising to 35% in 2021.

For those planning to leave in two years, work stress was the main motivation for 65% of respondents, while concerns about the level of trust placed in teachers by the public and government were also a significant factor.

Teachers also cited salary and liability as reasons to consider abandonment. One teacher said, “I am desperate to get out of school because of work pressure, constant monitoring and paperwork.

Teachers say schools are finding it difficult to fill vacancies, with the role doubling, with 73% reporting that the problem has worsened since the epidemic began.

“People leave and then their responsibility [are] Another role has been added, ”said one teacher.

Another describes how “everything is in harmony with the bones.”

They added, “We have increased the responsibility of leadership but we have run out of time to fulfill it,” they added.

“Classes are regularly covered by teacher assistants, as if it were completely satisfactory.”

Two-thirds of secondary school teachers (66%) said that since March 2020, the problem of vacancies for teacher assistant and support staff has worsened. One respondent stated that “very few” teachers were assistants and were asked to cover more classes than before.

For those who thought about stress at work, two-thirds reported that they were under stress at least 60% of the time, with one teacher reporting that extended staffing kept workers “close to burnout.”

Dr. Mary Bosted, joint general secretary of NEU, said that the continuing education secretaries had “failed to keep an eye on the problems facing teachers”.

“We are in the profession of having the highest number of unpaid working hours and we are still well above the international average for hours worked by teachers. It’s not just sustainable and it can only be a burnout, “he said.

He said the government should not simply accept that high workload was a problem, but that it had “played an important role among many contributing factors”.

“The results of our survey show that whether it misses recruitment targets, leaving the profession of meritorious teachers, the detrimental effect of a punitive and deeply flawed inspection system, or the effect of cutting real-time payments over many years, is a national policy decision. Always a piece of villain, ”he said.

He said the Department of Education needs to take steps to “ship right”, as many teachers are leaving the profession when very few new ones have been hired to replace them.

“It’s a very large amount because the work has been interesting and unstable,” he said.

Dr. Boosted added that teaching was a “great and fulfilling job” that people entered because they wanted to make a difference.

“Yet the government makes it more difficult, and if we want to do the right thing for the youth collectively, we must be able to give them the education they deserve.” That change must come from above. ”

A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “We acknowledge that school and college staff are under pressure and are grateful to them for their efforts, resilience and service now and throughout the Covid-19 epidemic.

“Education remains an interesting and fulfilling profession. The number of teachers in our school is much higher, with over 461,000 teachers working across the country – 20,000 more than in 2010.

“We have taken and will continue to take steps to improve the workload and well-being of teachers and leaders, working actively with the sector to understand the drivers behind such problems and to improve our policies and interventions.”