Why Is There A Shortage Of Teachers?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35895321
Isn't it obvious?

[Gromit]

New Judge

Expensive housing being a bar for teachers only really applies in London. London combatted that by inventing suburbia and having cracking transport links into the city. The problem and the solution does not really apply in the rest of the UK.

[DTCwordfan]

we'll agree to diasgree, Gromit, you need to understand what is happening in housing markets down here - bad, though not as bad as London....driven by Grommits and Emmits..... there are, of course, other issues that come into play but disposable income is a big issue.....

[DTCwordfan]

sorry, grockels, not grommits!!!! lol

[ToraToraTora]

nothing to do with class sizes and all the BS above from gromit.
a) The classes are full of unruly cretins who don't want to learn
b) Any form of control or discipline has been removed from the teachers
c) The Kids know about b) and they know their "rights" and thus make teaching impossible
d) Teachers have to concentrate on not offending any group with even the tiniest slip of the tongue and thus they are not focused on actually teaching.
e) The parents will never believe their little darlings are not model pupils and thus kick up hell at the drop of a hat.

[EDDIE51]

Only 30 tonyav? Back in 1961 > 64 there were 54 in my class , just one teacher , no assistants, no TV, no computers. We sat 2 to a desk meant for 1 and shared 1 textbook between 2 pupils. Yet we all learned to read, write and do basic maths before we were 12 years old!

[Gromit]

Tora,
All of that has been true for the the last 30 years.

Yet the failure to recruit new teachers only started 4 years ago.

[tonyav]

30 or more secondary school, EDDIE.

[New Judge]

“UK class sizes for secondary education are smaller than the OECD average.”

Then there’s no need for a teacher shortage. Simply bump the class sizes up.

Having said that I wouldn’t be a teacher for all the tea in China. The thought of having to combat ignorance in a bunch of disrespectful badly behaved oiks without the sanction of giving them a good larruping to keep then in order and I’m surprised they can get anybody to do it. Couple this when, if working in the State sector, you’d be answerable to a local authority infested with politically correct jobsworths and I think I’d rather top myself.

[Peter Pedant]

Mixed ability adult teacher has the patience of a saint

I admire him but it doesnt make me want to teach ...

[Gromit]

New Judge,
If you have to resort to beating children, you are a lousy teacher.
The majority of local authorities are Conservative controlled, are these guilty of being politically correct. Perhaps you just mean they interfer like I said earlier?

[New Judge]

“If you have to resort to beating children, you are a lousy teacher.”

It would be the pupils who were equally lousy in that situation. And yes I would make a terribly lousy teacher. When confronted with an unruly mob of fifteen year olds who did not want to be where they were I would like to think I had the support of my employer when it came to defending myself. That’s probably why there is a shortage of teachers.

“The majority of local authorities are Conservative controlled, are these guilty of being politically correct.”

Absolutely. I make no differentiation between authorities based on their political makeup. I hold no brief for any local authorities. I believe they are largely unnecessary, are a waste of money, and their council chambers and offices seem to have an unusually high preponderance of jobsworths and busybodies among their occupants. In the main they are simply a local manifestation of the party political travesty that infests national government (though I accept there are is a slightly larger proportion of independent councillors than there are independent MPs).

As I said in response to another question, I have never understood why state education should be of any concern to local authorities. The standard and quality of education offered should not vary according to the whims and fancies of a bunch of local busybodies.

[cassa333]

If teachers want to teach how they want without having to be told, then perhaps government should just set the standard and exams and let the rest be done 'on the front line'.

Teachers continually blame interference from on high for the quality of teaching and results. This way they live or die by their teaching methods.

But what happens when results drop? Who is to blame? At the moment the teachers blame they system, the social makeup of the area, the ethnic make up of the area, the economic makeup of the area. It's not our fault gov?

Give the teacher autonomy and let them prove they know best. But woebetide the school that first fails.

[Mamyalynne]

Whilst I would be the first to admit that there are some unruly pupils and indeed parents and of course there always have been - I am amazed at those who think every school/class is full of those.

Do these include your own offspring or just those of everyone else?

[Gromit]

I know loads of ex-teachers, but they have been bailing out for the last quarter century. There were always plenty of replacements until the dreadfully useless Gove came along.

[mikey4444]

Mamy...voice of reason at last.

[Old_Geezer]

As I have no offspring I suspect it might be everyone else's.
But I think only existing or recent teachers can bring real insight, just so long as they have no hidden agendas.

[Prudie]

I was going to add that none of the lack of respect from pupils or parents would come from any ABer of course, so that means it's a myth?
You only have to watch programmes like Educating Essex, Yorkshire etc (knowing they are edited for the best bits) to see how the modern way of dealing with discipline has changed;
Pupil to teacher ' *** off'
Teacher to pupil 'Oh thank you but that's not very nice, do you have problems at home?'

[Quizmonster]

One of the key points in my view - and I was a teacher for a few years - is the fact that teachers and parents were, when I was a schoolboy many decades ago, "in league" with each other! It's true, not a myth, that, if your parents learned that you'd been cheeky to a teacher, they as well as the teacher would punish you...and yes, often by 'larruping' you, just as the teachers were free to do!
This "joint effort" approach has long since disappeared; now parents are storming the school gates at the merest hint that their offspring requires punishment of any sort. As long as there is no "we're all in this together" attitude...genuinely, not as in Tory publicity terms...teaching as a job is likely to remain as a 'wallflower' career.

[New Judge]

Heaven's above! D'you know, QM, I think we are in total agreement !!!!!!

[ToraToraTora]

Gromit:"Tora,
All of that has been true for the the last 30 years.

Yet the failure to recruit new teachers only started 4 years ago. " - No it is cumulative, the rot started probably about 30 years ago but it has evolved to the current state of affairs as described in my post above.