“I Quit”: Why Teachers Are Leaving En Masse
Whether it's taking a post overseas or leaving teaching altogether, something's still not right in the world of education
“Teaching isn’t about teaching any more. It’s about results and form filling.”
– Gill, a Year 5 teacher who worked in the profession
for 30 years before resigning last year.
Quotes like these have become synonymous with teaching, and it is consistently ranked as one of the most stressful careers. Consequently, teachers are leaving by the day. The government is obsessed with achieving the best exam results and teachers are bogged down by a culture of target setting, tick boxing and the knowledge that they are being continuously monitored and scrutinised.
Statistics by Whitehall’s independent spending watchdog has found that those leaving the vocation has gone up 11% in the past 3 years.
Furthermore, the numbers of those who chose to leave the industry ahead of retirement has increased from 64% to 75%; demonstrating a shortfall in experienced teachers.
It has become clear that dedicated and experienced teachers find themselves unable to live up to the current requirements as specified by governmental bodies. Changes in the profession are paramount for the future of teaching, and to ease the recruitment crisis that currently exists.
“Target setting, box ticking and the pressure of Ofsted.”
Teachers are expected to constantly monitor and assess every pupil’s performance, and therefore spending much less time actually teaching.
Many end up prioritising the needs of the pupils over their own, taking endless work back home, as the NUT pointed out when it stated that “teachers are subjected to excessive workloads and working hours which are often exacerbated by a surfeit of government initiatives.”
On top of that, teachers’ salaries are clearly not in accordance with the true hours they are working.
“In order to get grades – so many boxes have to be ticked. I end up spending hours outside of the normal school day to meet the demands,” says Dan, a Year 5/6 teacher who now works in an overseas school after being in the profession for five years here in the UK. “I moved to Australia last year to teach on a two-year working VISA and I’m loving it. The pay is better and I receive a lot more support. Class sizes are reasonable as well”.
“We are seeing more and more teachers heading abroad to teach, dissatisfied with the situation in the UK,” says Andrew Lynch from teachingabroaddirect.co.uk. “Unless the current teacher shortage is halted we will face a bigger crisis in the future, with even higher workloads and the possibility of striking.”
Teachers feel pressurised to pass students in order to get the best results for the school, and to appear favourable in the league tables.
“Part of me really misses teaching,” says Gill. “I loved inspiring children, and found that aspect very rewarding. However, in the last couple years in my job, I no longer had time to focus on their needs as individuals. The students became data sets. Education has never been just about passing exams, it’s about helping children get a rounded education – they learn far more than what’s on the curriculum. But when teachers are focused on ticking boxes, all of that goes out the window.”
Another pressure teachers face is the looming Ofsted inspection. “Ofsted is a mere snapshot of your teaching,” says Dan. “You feel under tremendous pressure; and if it goes badly, it reflects poorly on the school, and on your teaching. There is a current obsession with test results which have the potential to classify children as ‘below national standard’ at the age of 7 and 11. Tests have led to a very narrow curriculum with schools focusing almost exclusively on what is set, as they need to perform well to satisfy the demands of Ofsted.”
What needs to change?
According to a recent survey conducted by NASUWT, more than two-thirds of the 3,500 teachers who took part had considered quitting the profession within the past year as a direct result of the stresses generated by the job, and the Government is still responsible for much of the workload facing teachers.
NASUWT found: “82% are suffering from lack of sleep and over three quarters from anxiety, and some are even self-harming. Almost half of teachers in the last year have sought medical advice, over a third have taken medication, 5% have been hospitalised.”
The government must therefore understand that if the current obsession with test results and existing targets continues, the teaching supply crisis will worsen. Although apparent attempts were made to tackle this pressing matter, it proved to be nothing more than, as NASUWT called it, a ‘gimmick with no serious attempt being made to address the issues.’
Make a change now, or our future generation will pay the price
The urgent need to reform the current state of teaching is still yet to be properly addressed, and as NASUWT general secretary, Chris Keates, pointed out “It’s not only the teachers who are losing out”. Without talented and highly qualified teachers, the only victim of the government’s denial of the teacher crisis will be the children.
Naomi is a freelance journalist who writes for Journalistic on a number of topics. She particularly enjoys producing content on business, career and employment-related topics. She is a keen traveller, and in her spare time enjoys baking and rock climbing.
