News / Society

UK struggling with teacher shortage

Wednesday, 06 January 2016 4:36 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 06 January 2016 4:36 PM ]

The UK’s education department is facing difficulties in recruiting teachers for some of its primary schools.

The UK’s education department is facing difficulties in recruiting teachers for some of its primary schools.

Now shortage of teachers in a primary school in the UK’s Yorkshire has forced the pupils to travel to another school for part of each day.

According to media reports, Easington Primary Academy pupils will be driven to another school for morning lessons in literacy and numeracy. The school said a long-term supply teacher had left earlier than expected and a replacement could not be found.

Now Head of Teachers Union, Brian Lightman has warned that a shortage of teachers has become a "crisis" for schools.

"Urgent action needs to be taken to address this problem that is jeopardising efforts to raise standards," said Lightman.

This comes as a spokeswoman for the Department for Education says: "It is simply not true that there is a shortage of primary school teachers."

"Last year we recruited 116% of our primary target. However, we know that some schools, and particularly some rural schools, find it more difficult to recruit," she said.

Meanwhile, National Union of Teachers' Leader Christine Blower warned that recruitment problems were of the government's own making and warned that they could get worse.

"Failure to address excessive and often pointless workload alongside low and unpredictable pay have resulted in a huge number of teachers considering leaving the profession while new graduates are choosing other more attractive career options," he said.

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