UK NEWS

SCHOOLS COULD FACE TEACHER SHORTAGE

Hundreds of schools face a teacher shortage, say experts

Thursday April 17,2008

Hundreds of schools face a shortage of teachers under a Government crackdown on the employment of foreign staff, experts have warned.

Rules coming into force in September will stop state schools employing staff who lack official Qualified Teacher Status in a drive to boost standards.

But academics at London's Institute of Education (IoE) believe one in six of the capital's school workforce could be affected as many staff have qualified overseas but not in the UK. This could lead to a teacher recruitment crisis in London in autumn, they warned.

Professor Peter Earley and Sara Bubb, from the IoE, said a large share of London's teachers appeared not to be officially registered with the General Teaching Council.

"Although there are 69,200 teachers in the capital's state schools, only 57,773 London teachers have registered and that total includes independent school teachers," they said. "That is a matter for concern because it looks as if over 11,000 teachers - a sixth of the capital's workforce - aren't registered, presumably because they aren't qualified."

The researchers said London schools already had twice as many teacher vacancies as the national average.

"Some schools could therefore find it desperately hard to recruit enough qualified staff for September," they said.

"It is good that the employment rules are being tightened because London children need fully qualified teachers. However, the short-term consequences are worrying, if pupils are without teachers."

From September 1 this year, all newly-trained teachers will need to have been awarded qualified status before they can be employed as teachers in state schools.