by Our News Desk

TWO-THIRDS of schools are struggling to recruit new teachers, heads’ union NAHT revealed yesterday.

The National Association of Head Teachers found that 62.4 per cent of over 1,000 heads it asked reported “difficulty” recruiting classroom teachers.

And 61.8 per cent said they had trouble finding teachers on the upper pay scale to fill senior posts.

Two-fifths blamed a shortage of teachers for the problem — adding to fears that attacks on the profession by the Conservatives are creating a recruitment and retention crisis across Britain’s schools.

A combination of low pay, exhausting hours, constant hectoring from the Ofsted inspectorate and a growing emphasis on subjecting children to endless standardised tests — resented by teachers, pupils and parents alike — has been blamed for driving so many teachers out of the classroom.

Recent studies by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that careers in teaching have become so unattractive that 38 per cent of those who gain qualified teaching status are not in teaching a year later — either because they have already quit or because they decided not to start in the first place.

A further two-fifths of surveyed head teachers said the quality of applicants for teaching posts was too low.

NAHT Edge’s Louis Coiffait said: “It’s time to be frank — we’re facing a recruitment crisis at all stages of the education system.

“Until we address it at each of those stages, there’s no chance that we’ll have the quantity or quality of head teachers we need in the future.”