Each year roughly one in ten state school classroom teachers in England leave the profession. This is a significant problem when the government continues to miss teacher recruitment targets. Just recently, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged that more teachers are needed to implement his policy of maths education until the age of 18.
My research, published in a working paper for the Institute for Social and Economic Research and reviewed by colleagues, explores the reasons teachers leave the profession – and the policies that might stop them leaving.
I surveyed over 300 teachers to find out whether and when they intended to leave the profession. I also asked them how likely they might be to leave teaching in a number of different scenarios, such as a salary increase or an increase or decrease in their working hours, and asked about their expectations regarding opportunities in the job market.
My findings show that policies related to reducing teacher working hours and improving the quality of school leaders would be effective. I also found that increasing teachers’ salaries would reduce their intentions of leaving. However, only a large pay rise – over 10% – is likely to have a significant effect.
