Is workload the cause of poor teacher retention? The National Education Union (NEU) recently conducted a poll that found that 44% of state teachers are looking to leave teaching by 2027. Another study by TeachVac suggested that schools are also seeing an increase in vacant teaching positions, with a 54% increase in vacant Headteacher roles when compared to the previous year. This is leaving many to speculate what is causing this issue and to query the greater impact on the education sector.
The NFER’s annual report said that “workload is the reason most cited by ex-teachers for why they left teaching” and right now that is particularly pressing because too many teachers are leaving before retirement age.
Why are teachers leaving the profession?
Over recent years, the education sector has seen pressures significantly rise with budget cuts being a large factor in the increase in workload for teachers.
The Department for Education stated that one in four secondary schools maintained by local authorities saw a financial deficit in 2019/20. This has led to schools needing to cut staff and reduce funding throughout. Fewer support staff, dwindling school resources and bigger class sizes lead to increased strain and pressure on teaching staff, as they struggle to provide the same level of education as they were previously able to.
Paired with changes in current government policies, this is leaving many teachers unhappy in their current roles and forcing many within the sector to consider switching professions.
How will poor teacher retention impact schools?
If teacher retention continues to fall this could have a devastating impact on the education sector, leaving schools in a worrying situation where they are no longer able to provide an adequate education across the curriculum to their students.
Larger class sizes - teachers are now being stretched to support larger groups of children. This article from the Guardian suggests that larger class sizes are ‘damaging [teachers’] ability to meet the needs of all pupils, with more than 3,000 teachers having the view that the larger class sizes were adversely affecting their pupils’ progress and attainment.
Poorer student achievement – with more teachers leaving there will be a drop off in the quality of teaching staff because of this, and this could lead to many students underperforming.
Greater strain on those in the profession – as more teachers leave schools there will be a struggle to manage the workload of activities around the school such as running extra-curricular activities, planning the curriculum, creating subject action etc. Therefore, this will lead to an increase in individual workloads adding more pressure to the current situation.
What can be done to improve teacher retention?
It is unsure at this current moment what is required to ease teachers’ workloads. However, research conducted by Schools Week found that 46% of primary teachers and 29% of secondary teachers had to create their learning resources and stated that primary teachers could spend up to three hours a week searching for resources. Therefore, if teachers were provided with high-quality premade resources, we could start to see a drop in their overall workload.
Modern teachers are required to keep a lot of records. Record-keeping comprises a sizable portion of the administrative work placed on teachers, ranging from simple registers to items like compliance and reporting. Many teachers feel that if these tasks could be automated it would free up an enormous part of their workload and would assist them in completing other crucial jobs.
According to the 2022 NASUWT Teacher Wellbeing Survey, 90% of teachers admitted to having experienced higher levels of work-related stress in the last 12 months. Teachers play a vital role in the learning achievements of students. This makes teachers' mental health and well-being equally as important as the students they teach. If teachers are not mentally well, their ability to teach and support children is reduced. Schools must start to focus on creating a workplace culture where mental health blossoms, as this will aid in
improving the overall morale among teachers.
Conclusion
If the government do not start implementing strategies to tackle the issues causing poor teachers’ workload, we could see the issue worsen with an even bigger decrease in teacher retention as well as fewer new people looking to enter education.
What is your setting doing to address the issue of teacher retention? Are you a teacher thinking about leaving the profession? Where do you see our education system in five years' time?